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THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

A STUDY OF 

ITS FOUNDATIONS, RELATIONS, DEVELOPMENTS, 
ACTIVITIES, AND POSSIBILITIES 



BY 

HOMER H. SEERLEY 

PRESIDENT OF IOWA STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1913 



L-- 






Copyright, 1913, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 




©CU33084I 

' ' ' 



FIRST WORDS 

There are few modern educational discussions 
that have reached such proportions and have de- 
veloped such a diversity of conclusions as have 
those that have attempted the problems of the 
country school. College education is simple com- 
pared to the education that deals with the instruc- 
tion and the training of the masses. To secure 
the solution of college problems the best-trained 
minds of the generation have given time, thought, 
and investigation. As a result, definite organiza- 
tion has been secured, notable standardization has 
resulted, and the profession of educators has been 
recognized. In this field are found the higher 
salaries, the greater emoluments, and the most 
attractive distinctions. Whenever men conclude to 
make education a career they naturally prepare 
for some specific department of higher education, 
as they readily conclude that there is enough of 
sacrifice, of lack of recognition, and of limited ser- 
vice in this more honored and better esteemed 
field of public activity. 



vi FIRST WORDS 

These conditions have left the greater problems 
of popular education in the hands of public officials 
and teachers who have but short, indeterminate, 
changeable terms of public service, and have made 
the whole organization and management tentative 
and evolutionary. Such individuals as short-term 
legislators, limited-service State superintendents 
of public instruction, temporary "county superin- 
tendents, short-time boards of examiners for 
teachers' certificates, and three-year members of 
school boards control the destinies, decide the 
policies, determine the expenditures, and regulate 
the standards that such huge efforts represent. 
Most of the improvement plans which have been 
formulated have appeared in the form of recom- 
mendations to legislatures by State superintend- 
ents or in the form of resolutions adopted by 
State and national teachers' associations, repre- 
senting the stand-points of administration, of 
expediency, and of modification rather than the 
stand-points of social efficiency and of actual 
capability for the masses. 

These pages have been written by one who ar- 
rived at the opinions here presented by actual ex- 
perience with the life of the farm through all its 
varied hardships, pleasures, struggles, and sue- 



FIRST WORDS vii 

cesses. The country school was his educational 
institution during his elementary school-days. Its 
vantage-ground as a place for effective work, its 
field of opportunity for the largest and most suc- 
cessful usefulness to society, its remarkable chance 
for the greatest results that any kind of educational 
endeavor can give, are well known to him through 
an accurate acquaintance with the men and women 
of the farm. They possess a competency in doing 
things that is unusual, they have a reliability that 
cannot be appreciated until it is tested, and they 
have a sanity of view in regard to public affairs 
that has made them progressive and self-reliant. 
Three years' work as a teacher in these country 
schools renewed his experience with the boys and 
girls of the farm and confirmed his former opinion 
that they were, as a class, of superior quality, char- 
acter, and disposition. Of his many years of ex- 
perience, none gave him more assurance of the 
future prospects, or of the earnest sincerity, or of 
the superb willingness to realize the best things 
of life than did the boys and girls that were his 
pupils in those remarkably interesting winter 
terms. The school-day was never too long, the 
tasks assigned were never too heavy, and the re- 
quirements of the school management were never 



viii FIRST WORDS 

too exacting not to receive their co-operation, 
their commendation, and their sympathy. In one 
of these schools it seemed necessary to the teacher 
to have at least two night sessions a week to ac- 
complish the work as planned for the older pupils 
in order to give them the opportunities actually 
needed. At every such special session they were 
regularly in attendance and even seemed to equal 
the teacher in ambition, industry, and zeal. Later 
it became his privilege to conduct teachers' in- 
stitutes and have experience with the corps of 
country teachers of a whole county. They were 
chiefly country bred and country educated. They 
displayed an interest, an application, and a spirit 
of improvement during those ten years of consecu- 
tive instructing in the same county that established 
their place as workers for the common good to the 
very highest degree of admiration. This opinion 
has been confirmed by twenty-five years of addi- 
tional administrative experience in a teachers' 
training school, where country boys and girls in 
great numbers have studied to become country 
teachers. They are the salt of the earth. They de- 
serve every opportunity that civilization can con- 
fer. The nation, the State, and the county should 
combine to enlarge the province of the elementary 



FIRST WORDS ix 

school in order to train the masses for an intelli- 
gent and a productive citizenship. With these 
great facts in mind, with an ambition to contribute 
some valuable notions that may better the pros- 
pects of elementary education, with a hope of 
helping the country people, their children, and 
their teachers to appreciate more fully their rights 
and their privileges, these chapters on funda- 
mental problems of public education are respect- 
fully submitted. 

Homer H. Seerley. 

Iowa State Teachers College, 

Cedar Falls, Iowa, December 10, 191 2. 



CONTENTS 

I. THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY 



PAGE 



Advantages and disadvantages of country life ... 3 

Factors that make for the welfare of the community 4 

The school district the unit of school management 4-5 

Responsibilities of the electors in school district . 5-6 

The school board and its duties 6 

The patrons and the importance of their rights and 

duties 7 

Importance of making pupils understand that 

schools are for preparation for life 7-8 

The teacher and his qualifications 8-9 

Harmony of effort necessary to produce good schools 9 

II. THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Distinctive marks of country school 10 

Importance of country school in the community . . 10-1 1 

Part played by the practical in country school . . II-12 
Importance of adapting country school to the needs 

of country people 12-13 

Intellectual culture important in country school . 13-14 

Importance to child of habits of industry .... 14-15 

III. COUNTRY LIFE 

Characteristics of country life 16-17 

Value of experience as a teacher 17-18 

Importance to children of sharing in home work . 18-19 

Necessity of gratifying social needs 19-20 

Rights of the young 20 

IV. WHAT EDUCATION CAN DO 

What education means 21-22 

Character the most important product of education 22 

xi 



xii CONTENTS 

Page 

Importance of success in school work 23-24 

Value of social element in school 24-25 

Country environment best under normal conditions 25-26 

V. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 

Keeping records of pupils' work 27-28 

Necessity of examining pupils at beginning of each 

term 28-29 

Reading and arithmetic the basic subjects for 

classification 29-30 

Classification more important than grading in coun- 
try school 30 

Seats should be assigned by teacher according to a 

definite plan 30-31 

Miscellaneous arrangements should be systematized 

by teacher 31-32 

Stimulation of work and rousing of interest the end 

of organization 32 

VI. THE SCHOOL HOUSE AND GROUNDS 

Needs of present-day country school 33—34 

Country school-house must be adequate to meet de- 
mands of modern education 34—35 

Country school-house must be large enough to be 
used for lyceums, farmers' meetings, lecture 

courses, etc 35—36 

Importance of best modern equipment for heating, 

lighting, and sanitation 36 

Equipment for shop work, cooking, sewing, etc. . . 36-37 
Importance of instruction in agriculture .... 37-38 

VII. THE ORGANIZATION OF A COUNTRY 

COMMUNITY 

Importance of organization to success in public af- 
fairs 39 

Management of school building and equipment, the 

business of the school board 39-4° 



CONTENTS xiii 



PAGE 



A literary club of great value in the community . 40-41 
Importance of a science club to the community . . 41-42 
Importance of a singing club to the community . . 42 
A woman's club a source of profit and pleasure . . 42-43 
Miscellaneous activities that contribute to the in- 
terest and good of the community 43 - 44 

Value of friendly competition 44 

VIII. THE PROGRAMME 

Importance of a programme 45 

A proper schedule considers the laws of mental en- 
durance and mental activity 45~46 

Importance of understanding the order of develop- 
ment of child's mind 46 

What this order is 46 

Difference between perceptions and conceptions . . 46-47 

Memory, imagination, and judgment 46-47 

Reasoning 48 

Character of teaching determined by order of child's 

development 48 

The most difficult work should come when mental 

energy is at its height 49 

Only the most concrete and graphic types of arith- 
metic should be taught in the lower grades . . 49-50 
Work must be adapted to the age and development 

of pupil 50 

Algebra adapted to a higher mental development 

than arithmetic 50 

Need of modifying daily plan of teaching to suit the 

mental condition of pupil 50-51 

Six hours with two recess periods of fifteen minutes 

each the usual school day. 51 

Two hours in morning and two in afternoon prob- 
ably enough work for average child .... 51-52 

Best to have recitations of good length 52 

Importance of variations of programme .... 52 

Proposed general programme of recitation .... 53 

Importance of arranging oral lessons and written 

lessons on alternate days 53—54 



xiv CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Importance of independent night work for advanced 

students 54 

Information studies best adapted to outside work . 54 

IX. MANAGEMENT 

Necessity for definite aims on part of teacher . . . 55-56 

Laws of school binding on teacher as well as on pupil 56 

Importance of teacher's manner and spirit in school 56-57 

Characteristics of good management 57~59 

Ways in which the skill of teacher shows itself . . 59-60 
Importance of finding dominant intellectual interest 

of community 60-61 

X. SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

Character of government of school depends on cir- 
cumstances 62-63 

No standard of perfect conduct for children . . . 63-64 

Need for eternal vigilance on part of teacher . . . 64-65 
Personal influence and popular control of teacher 

qualities of most permanent value .... 65 

School government extremely complex 65-66 

The moral factor the most important influence affect- 
ing school government 66-67 

The intellectual factor concerns chiefly the official re- 
lations of teacher and pupils 67 

Government by mere authority less efficacious than 

that based on moral and intellectual elements 67-68 

Force to be used only as a last resort . . . . . 68-70 

XL TACTICS 

Importance of a simple system of tactics .... 71-72 

Usefulness the test of any system of tactics ... 72 

Systems for opening and closing school 72-73 

Suppressive discipline to be avoided as not training 

in self-control 73~74 

School-room routine should be conducted quietly . 74~75 

Importance of relieving monotony in school-room . 75 

Rigid forms of discipline to be avoided 75-77 



CONTENTS xv 

XII. EXAMINATIONS 



PAGE 



Examinations properly given of great value . . . 78-80 
Nature of examination must vary according to cir- 
cumstances and conditions 80-81 

Aim of examination to test results 81-82 

Frequency of examinations differs according to 

subject 82 

Three chief objects of examinations 83-84 

Importance of patience and deliberation in conduct- 
ing examinations 84-85 

XIII. STUDY 

Importance of proper lesson assignments .... 86-87 

Importance of assisting pupil to prepare lessons . 87-89 
Open book lessons best way to teach pupils how to 

study 90 

What values of study depend on 91 

XIV. THE RECITATION 

The object of the recitation 92-93 

Class instruction most economical method in schools 94 

Value of the recitation beyond question .... 94~95 
No definite form of conducting recitation to be 

recommended 95~9^ 

Set recitation plans to be avoided ...... 96 

Tricks often practised on the teacher 97 

A combination of oral and written methods the best 

recitation plan 98-99 

XV. THE COMMONER 

The teacher a part of the machinery of the school 

system 100 

Importance of teacher's cultivating the good will of 

the community 100-101 

The school once a private institution now controlled 

by the public 101-102 

Province of education of higher rank than most pub- 
lic undertakings 103 



xvi CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Importance of cultivating the masses in a democracy 103-104 

Fellowship the source of influence in both teacher 

and pupil 104-105 

Important for teacher to co-operate in every move- 
ment for community good 105-106 

Need for business judgment as well as professional 

knowledge and skill on part of teacher . . . 106-107 

XVI. THE YOUNG PEOPLE 

Conditions for normal life most favorable in country 108-109 
Importance of recreation and entertainment for 

young people . . 109-110 

Importance of playgrounds 110-111 

Making the school a social centre 1 1 1 

Necessity of organizing recreation activities of school 1 1 1-1 1 2 
Importance of clubs and libraries 1 1 2-1 13 

XVII. SUPERVISION 

No real supervision of country schools 114 

Good accomplished by county superintendency . . 11 4-1 15 

Need of better supervision 11 5-1 16 

Need for men teachers 116-117 

Large opportunities of district superintendent . . 117-118 

Educational organization — size of the task . . . 11 8-1 19 

The place of the expert 1 19-120 

XVIII. THE PLACE OF RECREATION 

Human life a unity 121-122 

Importance of organizing play 122-123 

Value of recreation 123-124 

Importance of making school work enjoyable . . 124-125 

Real province of education 125-126 

XIX. TAXATION AND THE STATE 

The business problem of the country school ... 127 

The part played by the State 127-128 



CONTENTS xvii 

PAGE 

Success of State subsidy educational work . . . . 129-130 

Importance of inspection and supervision .... 129-130 

Need for better teachers 130-131 

Importance of stimulating local interest and devel- 
oping local initiative 131-132 

XX. THE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL 

To win the approval of the masses educational work 

must stand the test of experience 133-134 

The country school stands where it stood fifty years 

ago . . . 134 

Independent district control of schools a bar to im- 
provement 134-135 

Importance of State co-operation with district . . 136 

Need for higher standards for teacher's licenses . . 137 

Necessity for demonstration schools 137 

XXI. CO-OPERATION 

Importance of co-operation to country communities 139-140 

Narrowness of the country dweller 140-141 

Differences between country and town life . . . 141-142 
Progress in country schools chiefly dependent on 

broadening of experience of community . . . 143-144 
Necessity for enlarging the unit of school organi- 
zation 144-145 

Co-operation the key to advancement to all lines of 

effort 145 

XXII. THE PROPER UNIT IN SCHOOL 
ORGANIZATION 

Proper unit in school organization varies according to 

circumstances 146 

Country school districts often over-organized . . . 146-147 

The county the best taxing unit to give proper finan- 
cial support . 148 

Importance of inspection, supervision, and expert 

management 148-149 



xviii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Size of community unit dependent on means of 

communication 150 

Solution of country school problem largely a matter 

of business adjustment 150-151 

XXIII. STANDARDIZATION 

Strong sentiment for standardization of schools . 152 
Schools now standardized from lowest grades through- 
out high schools 153-154 

Impossibility of hitherto standardizing country 

schools 154 

Great influence of teacher in country school . . . 155-156 
Necessity for reasonable standardization of country 

school 156 

Popular misconceptions of education 157-158 

XXIV. THE COURSE OF STUDY 

Educational ideals of various peoples 1 59-161 

Function of country school only partly realized . . 162 

Present courses of study reflect public needs . . . 163-164 
Difficulty of securing competent teachers at the low 

salaries available 164-165 

Training in English language first result to be sought 165 

Difficulties of teaching English . ....... 165-166 

Success in other branches largely dependent on 

teaching of English 167-168 

Importance of arithmetic 168-170 

Thinking in abstract relations not natural to the 

child mind 170-171 

Value of information subjects such as geography and 

history 171-172 

XXV. THE TEACHER SUPPLY 

Too many school districts under present system . 173 
Schools should be so conducted as to bring best re- 
turns 173 

School money often wasted 174 



CONTENTS xix 

PAGE 

Best kind of teacher for country school .... 174-175 
Special efforts needed to train teachers for country 

schools 175-176 

Need of country teachers' courses in high schools . 176 

Kind of training needed by teacher 177-178 

Importance of actual training in country school work 179 

Opportunities for high schools to do normal school 

work 179-180 

Importance of teachers' institutes and reading 

circles 180 

XXVI. AGRICULTURE 

Development of curriculum 181-182 

Vocational studies 182-183 

Purpose of manual training 1 83 

Agriculture in the country school 184 

The demands of agriculture on the student . . . 184-185 

What agricultural study includes H 185-187 

Importance of co-operation between the school and 

the home 187-188 

Education a preparation for real present-day living 188 

XXVII. HAPPINESS 

Happiness of body, mind, and spirit the'chief end of 

human attainment 189 

Equality of ability among men not desirable . . 190 
Education gives each individual the opportunity to 

make the best of himself 191-192 

Selfishness the greatest source of unhappiness . . 193-194 

The final aim of education personal character . . 195-196 

XXVIII. CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS 

Rise in price of land has made much farming un- 
profitable ' 197 

Educational problems complicated by advance in 

cost of living 198 

Shortage of labor and rise in wages unfavorable to 

success of farm life 199 



xx CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Prosperity of agricultural districts injured by land 

speculation 199 

Progress of schools hindered by increase in number of 

tenant farmers 199-200 

Progress of schools dependent on social and financial 

conditions 200 

Progress of country schools prevented by social de- 
terioration 201-202 

Value of State aid in improving country schools . 202-203 

The problem of the country school social rather 

than pedagogical 204 

XXIX. FINAL WORDS 

Limited character of present discussion .... 206 

Country schools neglected because of interest in 

business 206-207 

Great progress made in other educational fields . 207-208 
Importance of instruction in qualities necessary to 

adapt man to present age 208 

Too much reliance on laws for remedying evils . . 209 

More should be left to discretion of school officers 210 

The spirit the important thing in education . . . 210-21 1 

Index 213 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY 

Characteristics. — There are characteristics in 
environment that have a marked effect upon the 
life, the employments, the ideals, the standards, 
and the characters of the people that have normal 
and natural surroundings. The country has its 
blessings, its benefits, and its helpfulness that de- 
serve to be appreciated, and it has likewise its 
restrictions, its limitations, and its hindrances 
that must be overcome. What any single country 
community has become has depended entirely upon 
the energy, the intellectuality, and the morality of 
its people. What results have come to the youth 
that have been brought up in any such community 
has depended upon the opportunities conferred, 
the privileges granted, the social training imposed, 
and the standards of living exacted. The country 
can be better than the town in its ideals, in its 
notions of outcome of effort, and in its conceptions 
of things to be undertaken, because its population 
is much more homogeneous in accomplishments, 

3 



4 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

much more uniform in prosperity, and much more 
equal in opportunities to get ahead in the world 
than are the populations of the city or the town. 

Factors. — When progress, development, and wel- 
fare are to be considered as the necessary heritage 
of any community, then the recognition must be 
reached that there are several factors concerned 
and that all of them must contribute their pro- 
portion of effort, wisdom, time, or money for the 
public good. Social life is therefore organized as 
to territory included, as to authority conferred 
upon those who have the right to decide, as to the 
officials that are appointed to carry out the public 
will, as to the co-operation of those to be bene- 
fited, and as to the service of those who are to be 
employed to secure the ends desired by this public 
combination of effort. These factors are always 
important, always necessary, always reliable, and 
always effective. 

The School District. — The unit of school man- 
agement in a local sense consists of a school dis- 
trict. This territory is so organized and set apart 
because the people who live therein have known 
common interests, and therefore should have the 
spirit of co-operation. The school district in pop- 
ular government is a large factor in deciding what 
shall constitute the standards and the undertak- 
ings in education. The people need to be wide 



THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY 5 

awake to every interest that contributes to the 
welfare of the whole community, and, since hap- 
piness, usefulness, and prosperity depend very 
largely upon intelligence, morals, and culture, it 
becomes a matter of self-preservation to have good 
schools. In the United States public-school edu- 
cation is commonly left to the local community, 
and experience has proved that this plan is wise 
and good if the people recognize the value and the 
importance of education to society as a whole and 
to individuals in particular. 

The Electors. — Each school district has a system 
of political management whereby an annual meet- 
ing of electors is held in order to vote for school 
officers, called directors or members of the school 
board, and to decide other matters of business 
that are authorized by law. The persons who 
have the right to vote on these questions are called 
electors. The qualifications exacted by law are 
the same as are required of all voters at the general 
national and State elections. These electors have 
large responsibilities that are not always appreci- 
ated or realized, as it is made their duty to select 
for members of the school board the kind of per- 
sons that are qualified in spirit and in training 
to properly and successfully conduct the schools. 
Much of the success or the failure that is to fol- 
low in the school work is a consequence of the 



6 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

prudence or carelessness, and the conscientiousness 
or indifference, in the exercise of this right of suf- 
frage by these electors. These voters need to keep 
closely in touch with what is being done in the 
schools: they should know whether good, strong 
teachers are employed; they should be acquainted 
with the spirit and enthusiasm of the manage- 
ment; and they should ascertain what could be 
made still better if they are to fulfil completely 
the function of their patriotic service as citizens. 
The School Board. — The school board consists 
of representative citizens who are selected by the 
electors to conduct the school, because they are 
recognized as worthy of such trust and are sup- 
posed to be competent to so conduct the under- 
taking as to give the necessary returns for the in- 
vestment made in the money of the tax-payers 
and in the time of the children who attend the 
school. These school directors or committeemen 
are the agents of the people of the community 
and are not supposed to consult their own inter- 
ests or their own needs. They are to regard the 
welfare of all and hence must recognize duty as 
paramount to pleasure and good schools as the aim 
of their ultimate endeavor. The only basis of 
economy that they are authorized to enforce is 
that kind of liberal investment that gives the 
youth the best opportunities of the present age. 



THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY 7 

The Patrons. — The people who have children to 
send to school, and who give them the privilege of 
education, constitute the patrons. They may or 
may not be tax-payers, they may or may not be 
electors, they may or may not have a knowledge 
of what education should be, they may or may not 
be competent to decide the important problems to 
be solved, yet they all have rights, duties, and re- 
sponsibilities that are necessary to be exercised by 
them if they are to receive the full opportunity of 
patrons while they have a claim for fair dealing, 
for helpful consideration, and for recognition as 
citizens that should never be overlooked by those 
in authority. The comprehension of these rela- 
tionships on the part of all concerned will go far 
toward establishing conditions that make good 
schools a genuine possibility. 

The Pupils. — There is a province of education 
that belongs exclusively to those for whom the 
school is organized and conducted. It must never 
be forgotten that civilization has founded schools 
for the sole benefit of the children and youth that 
are soon to assume the difficult responsibilities of 
citizenship, and that there would be no need for 
such an institution in society if there were no 
children and youth. As soon as the early years 
have passed, so that discretion permits a reasonable 
recognition of personal responsibility, that soon 



8 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

it should be established in the minds of all pu- 
pils that a beneficent civilization has provided all 
these advantages and opportunities as a free gift 
for their preparation and training for a successful 
career in after life. Too frequently the pupils 
have wrong views of the object of the school; too 
commonly they assume that all this organized 
effort is to discipline and coerce them instead of 
benevolently to help them; and too generally they 
put their strength and their capability in opposi- 
tion to the great plans that have been created for 
their development and efficiency in order that they 
may defeat the object and the purpose of all this 
endeavor. 

The Teacher. — The last factor in the commu- 
nity that has a large part in educational endeavor 
is the teacher, the active personality that is se- 
cured by the school board to carry out the aims 
and the wishes of the community. This person 
is selected because he represents that he has the 
qualifications that the work of teaching children 
and youth demands. He is supposed to have the 
necessary scholarship, the real personality, the ac- 
quired training, the magnanimity of spirit, the 
knowledge of human nature, the qualities of self- 
control, and the capability of instruction that 
such a calling as teaching exacts. All the other 
things are preliminary to this contact of the teacher 



THE COUNTRY COMMUNITY 9 

with the pupils, all the other factors are co-opera- 
tors, the teacher is the constructor and the creator 
of what is regarded as success in educational 
work. He is the living personality that inspires 
enthusiasm, that compels love to be given, and 
that arouses activity of intellect and emotion to 
succeed in the joint undertaking that pupils and 
teachers are united in accomplishing. 

The Harmony of Work. — The community can 
only secure these results by a development of 
harmony and co-operation. All the factors in- 
volved must be of one mind and one heart. There 
can be no prosperous school unless there is peace 
and union of effort among all concerned, and a 
decisive endeavor that seeks the largest returns 
with the least expenditure. To this end all must 
labor, all must sacrifice, all must yield, all must 
hope. There can be no division of sentiment, 
there can be no lack of confidence and faith, there 
can be no conflict of authority, there can be no 
doubt of intentions, if the good of the community 
is to be secured and the plan of society for its 
amelioration and prosperity is to be consistently 
developed and realized. 



II 

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

The Distinctive Mark. — There is no cause for 
any apology for the necessary peculiarities of the 
country school. It is what it is, and it can be what 
it can be, because of these very individual char- 
acteristics that are sometimes unnecessarily de- 
plored by those who do not recognize the effi- 
ciency and the strength of its position as a factor 
in civilization. The distinctive mark of a coun- 
try school is its normal and natural environment. 
It has thus far escaped the devitalizing influences 
that the artificial and the conventional can pro- 
duce. It is strictly original in its characteristics 
and decidedly individual in its work and its de- 
velopment. Its strength lies in its closeness to 
nature, in its practical relation to the every-day 
occupations of every one, and in its possibilities 
for simplicity, sincerity, and sanity. The char- 
acter of its applications is always thoroughly prac- 
tical, and the development of its training is always 
efficient and result-giving. 

No Second Place. — Its province and opportu- 
nity is not that of subordination or inferiority, but 

10 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 11 

of co-ordination with actual life and superiority in 
its privileges and its opportunities. Its pupils are 
particularly blessed by the things that they do not 
know ahead of their time as much as they are 
by the things they do know about earning a living 
and about occupying their time in useful activities. 
The custom of being assigned some regular part 
of the work of the home and of the farm for which 
to be responsible is permitted the country child 
early in his development. Such training in ser- 
vice for the good of the family interests without 
individual remuneration is extremely valuable, as 
it teaches co-operation rather than selfishness, and 
altruism rather than individualism. The country 
school has thereby a first place in the community, 
as it is recognized as being one of the greater un- 
dertakings of the people as a whole. 

The Province of the Practical. — In no other 
school does the practical hold so large a place or 
receive as ready a response from its pupils. This 
is due to the fact that they are prepared by home 
training and by the necessities surrounding their 
lives to place a right valuation upon the kinds of 
culture and of preparation that make them ser- 
viceable representatives in society. To them, 
everybody should be an industrious contributor to 
the common good as well as to his own personal 
prosperity, and hence they accept the practical 



12 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

in their training as natural and appropriate as 
well as essential. The very occupations in which 
they are engaged require a study in an elementary 
way of many arts and sciences and continually 
emphasize with them the necessity of more knowl- 
edge and more applications of judgment. The 
kind of information and scholarship in which they 
are most interested is not the speculative nor the 
literary because the necessities they are compelled 
to meet demand practical aims and immediate 
results. This kind of knowledge may not con- 
stitute a part of the programme of studies of the 
college or the university, nor of the standard liter- 
ary high school, but it is of larger importance to 
the industrial classes of the people than the knowl- 
edge that such institutions are founded to give. 
Knowledge is not to be condemned because it is 
speculative and professional any more than be- 
cause it is practical and usable, but it is always 
necessary to recognize that each kind of knowledge 
has its place and its utility in the civilization of 
the world. 

The Adaptation to the Life of the People. — Edu- 
cation conducted by the people for the benefit of 
the people always consists of an adaptation to the 
persons being educated so that they are being pre- 
pared to become more and more effective in their 
happiness and their prosperity. The work of the 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 13 

farmer cannot be successfully compared as to im- 
portance with that of the merchant or the law- 
yer, because there is a lack of sufficient similarity. 
Each of them is necessary to civilization and each 
has a province to fulfil that cannot be omitted 
and civilization be complete. Special education 
is now recognized as a sensible solution of the 
training of the varieties of talent that exists in 
the masses. Most individuals could succeed in 
several occupations, since application, study, and 
fidelity would enable them to secure creditable re- 
sults in either one of these they may select, but 
the average person has not time enough to follow 
to much advantage several occupations to which he 
may be adapted by interest and by qualifications. 
Hence, most persons wisely select some one call- 
ing to which they devote their time, their thought, 
and their endeavor. By so doing they succeed 
in making comfortable livings and in developing 
creditable reputations. Hence, country-school ed- 
ucation should glory in country life, country occu- 
pations, and country possibilities because there are 
no opportunities offered a youth that guarantee 
as much average prosperity, as much average 
comfort, and as much average chance for reason- 
able success and happiness. 

The Need for Intellectual Culture. — While 
adaptability to the practical is essential in country- 



14 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

school education, yet in planning to accept such a 
conclusion there is no need to deprive such pupils 
of intellectual culture equivalent to that given city 
pupils. Country pupils are as capable of learning 
history, science, mathematics, music, and art as 
are city pupils. They have just as much hunger 
for the intellectual and the instructional, for the 
profound and the philosophical, for the national 
and the world type, for the artistic and the sub- 
lime, because their world of experience is even 
broader and deeper and more normal than the 
majority of those that live among the experiences 
that are man-made and thereby conventional and 
artificial. Because the practical, the expedient, 
and the temporary are always present and always 
needing attention, their capability for language, 
literature, politics, society, or the fine arts is not 
thereby limited. In fact, the very limitations 
that the common life of the country pupils seems 
to possess are the very reasons that cause them to 
leave their environment and enter upon activities 
that bring actual greatness and real distinction. 

The Importance of the Habit of Industry. — Of 
all the fortunate experience that can come to a 
child's early life, the habit of industry is of the 
greatest lasting importance. Its application to 
every phase of business and of enterprise is self- 
evident. To have learned to work and to enjoy 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 15 

work, to have acquired a feeling of dissatisfaction 
with idleness and indifference, to have attained 
to a condition where definite results are neces- 
sary to happiness and contentment, is a state of 
mind and personal being that defines opportunity 
as success and possibility as reality. One of the 
saddest experiences that many healthy children 
suffer is that of not having an opportunity for a 
normal response to their natural want for produc- 
tive occupation. This want is fully supplied in 
country life. There is work suitable to the power 
and the strength of the youngest pupils, there is 
abundant opportunity for them to engage in pro- 
ductive activities, there are privileges to use judg- 
ment and to practise experiments, there is chance 
to study and to invent, there is abundance of ser- 
vice for initiative and for testing to the fullest ex- 
tent, and hence energy is used in sensible ways 
and skill is trained to a wonderful extent, while 
character is developed and personality is ex- 
panded. The marvellousness of these things is 
easily realized by those whose pupils have had 
such training and such experiences. 



Ill 

COUNTRY LIFE 

Characteristics. — Country life is specially strong 
in things utilitarian. It is equally strong in types 
that are physical and experimental, as such life 
gives opportunities to test everything and come 
to conclusions by synthetic processes, so that such 
persons have natural daily training in inductive 
reasoning. This is more or less empirical and may 
be lacking in enough varieties of examples, but 
the experience obtained from year to year has the 
effect of modifying conclusions reached too hastily 
and gradually gives a body of knowledge that is 
extremely valuable to the possessor in his after 
studies in secondary school and college. The edu- 
cation thus obtained is broader in many respects 
than is sometimes realized because the persons 
who attempt to investigate frequently have nei- 
ther knowledge nor experience to do justice by 
such acquirements. In the country vocational 
training includes the elements of agriculture, horti- 
culture, stock-breeding, grain and stock judging, 
soil-judging, the use of fertilizers, buying and sell- 
ing the products of the farm, garden, dairy, poul- 

16 



COUNTRY LIFE 17 

try yard, and other resources, exchanging products 
in the general store or in the grocery for family 
supplies, and numerous other kinds of business 
like the handling of tools, skill in using farm ma- 
chinery, economy in the care of all things be- 
longing to the family, and many other activities 
that cannot here be enumerated but all of which 
contribute largely to the benefit of boys and girls 
that are thus environed by the strange things of 
nature and the urgent demands of labor. 

Benefits of Experience. — There is no kind of 
teaching more effective than experience. In this 
respect the country children are happily blessed 
by everything that attracts them and their inter- 
ests. They learn about the birds and the beasts 
and their habits and relations to each other and 
to the farmer. They acquire information about 
insects that are injurious to the garden, the stock, 
and the orchard, and are taught how to de- 
stroy them and thus protect the products of labor 
from damage and destruction. They are trained 
in the use of the implements of husbandry and 
obtain skill in the various occupations and indus- 
tries that constitute a part of their daily contribu- 
tion in labor for the family welfare. They learn 
these practical duties without knowing that they 
are actually receiving practical education and that 
they are acquiring a capability in using their 



18 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

senses and their muscles as well as their judgment, 
because their relationship to the family as co- 
workers is the most effective plan of training that 
can be desired. 

Salary Not an Object. — While these things are 
in progress and their training is being perfected in 
this large and effective way, development of char- 
acter, of ability in industry, of love for occupation, 
of co-operation with others, and of respect for 
superiors and elders is accomplished. It is nota- 
bly true that children who live with and work with 
their fathers and mothers secure a respect and an 
esteem for them and for their acquirements that 
could never be realized without such associations 
and experiences. In addition to that, this working 
for the common good of the family without an eye 
to personal gain or pay for services, this recogni- 
tion of being a member of the family that is con- 
ducting this business, this knowing that in the end 
they will have their share of the profits and accu- 
mulations that the family possess, this fact that 
the results of success are more truly for the benefit 
of the children than for the older members of the 
family, contribute more largely to a proper training 
in social attitude and moral helpfulness than any 
other system of training can produce. This kind 
of appeal is more altruistic than selfish, the tie 
is more for the home than for other associations, 



COUNTRY LIFE 19 

and the hope of personal prominence and distinc- 
tion is based more upon love and helpfulness than 
upon personal ambition for greatness. 

The Social Needs. — Country life can be barren 
in social opportunity and social training and hence 
fail in developing a balance and an equilibrium 
that mature life particularly needs. This condi- 
tion often occurs among the best people in coun- 
try communities and easily dissatisfies spirited 
young people with the kind of employment and 
activities that country life affords. Such a con- 
dition is unnecessary as well as undesirable. Such 
a situation should be relieved because it drives 
many intelligent people into cities and towns at the 
expense of their real prosperity, in order that they 
may get relief from the monotony and the tension 
in which they lived in the country. They sacri- 
fice a success that is real and an independence that 
is genuine to have their social hunger relieved and 
their opportunities for entertainment increased. 
To remedy such an unfortunate state of affairs 
as this is not impossible, to provide recreation 
that is wholesome and beneficial is not at all diffi- 
cult, while to give a social training to all is a 
matter that should not be overlooked by those who 
recognize the benefits of such experiences to happi- 
ness and contentment. The solution of such a 
mixed problem should not be postponed until 



20 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

wealth is increased, until more time can be with- 
drawn from work without loss to business, nor un- 
til the older people feel a distinct need for a change 
in custom and in practice. 

The Young Have Rights. — That there are rights 
and duties connected with social opportunities and 
activities should be fully realized. One's mental 
condition is better when it is recognized that a 
human being has a social nature as well as a moral 
and religious nature, that his success in his career 
depends very much upon his whole personality 
being used in sane and normal ways, and that dis- 
use and neglect can arrest development. A fair 
study of human needs and possibilities will always 
give a more rational treatment of these conditions 
caused by environment. Country life can be made 
the most interesting and the most attractive be- 
cause it is the most normal and the most inde- 
pendent. 



IV 

WHAT EDUCATION CAN DO 

Definition. — Schools are organized, equipped, 
and conducted for the purpose of giving an oppor- 
tunity to secure an education. The studies, the 
employments, and the exercises taught in them 
are selected because of their assumed usefulness in 
producing full development, positive culture, and 
efficient training. The real work that the pupils 
do for themselves constitutes the actual benefits 
that are obtainable, giving the mental results that 
well-qualified, well-trained persons believe to be 
essential to the needs of modern civilization. Self- 
reliance, independent accomplishment, and con- 
tinuous application transfer ability into capability 
and expand the personality of the pupils so that 
they are greatly superior in every individual way 
to what they could have been had the strenuous 
and continuous efforts required by the school been 
omitted. One of the best elementary definitions 
for the meaning of education was given by James 
Sully: "In spite of ethical and theological differ- 
ences, it can be said that education seeks by social 
stimulus, guidance, and control to develop the nat- 

21 



22 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ural powers of the child so as to render him able 
and disposed to lead a healthy, happy, and morally 
worthy life.' 3 ' 

The Conclusion. — In this definition it is posi- 
tively recognized that it does matter what kind 
of result an education gives. The character and 
the life of the one who has gone through the proc- 
esses and undergone the influences of a school 
should be of a decided type so far as regard for the 
body, the mind, or the soul is concerned. There 
should be no question of the physical sanity of the 
person as exhibited in his habits, conduct, and 
behavior. He should look upon his body as a 
sacred object that must not be debased, depraved, 
or destroyed by folly, by passion, or by crime. 
Health is of such great importance to a career, 
happiness of mind and heart is so dominant a 
force in determining the outcome, and moral 
worthiness is so prominent in usefulness, helpful- 
ness, and effectiveness that no compromise from 
these standards is possible. If the teacher does 
not find these characteristics developing in his 
pupils, it becomes his bounden duty to use every 
means within his power to bring about such 
changes in action and such reforms in motive that 
the personality and the life conform to these cor- 
rect standards of education. Scholarship, power, 
capability, and effectiveness, even when present in 



WHAT EDUCATION CAN DO 23 

business or in profession, are nothing of value as 
compared to character. 

Ability and Disposition. — There is more ability 
in the human family to be good and true and honor- 
able than there is disposition to show these traits. 
There is more ability to be a scholar, to be a me- 
chanic, to be a public official of the highest rank 
and quality than there is disposition to put forth 
the effort and make the sacrifices that such a re- 
sult requires. In order to make ability into a new 
product, capability, there is required much en- 
deavor and a decidedly unrelenting spirit on the 
part of individuals seeking success, distinction, 
and recognition. Working industriously in school 
becomes a good habit which is a permanent ben- 
efit throughout all after life because the develop- 
ment of good habits makes after application and 
successive diligent purpose comparatively easy. 
In the same way idleness, indifference, and dila- 
toriness become such harmful habits that there 
is little hope of inducing reform for the person 
acquiring them, since this condition of worthless- 
ness and indolence becomes actually enjoyable 
and permanently satisfactory to him. It is for 
such reasons that the teacher should use every 
means and effort to secure for pupils success in 
their school work, as the success habit is a pow- 
erful influence in keeping application alive and 



24 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

energy effective. Success, and success alone, satis- 
fies such as are prepared by training and by edu- 
cation to expect it. Failure is a negative result, 
which, by bad training and worse treatment, be- 
comes such a common experience that anything 
different can hardly be appreciated. The realiza- 
tion of one's powers, the knowledge of one's gifts, 
the possession of one's skill and attainments are 
all notable acquirements that can never be over- 
estimated. True teachers should never undertake 
to excuse themselves when they know that their 
pupils have tendencies and prospects that are 
unfortunate and unpromising. As long as the 
relation of teacher and pupil continues, heroic 
endeavors should be put forth to develop better 
conditions and more hopeful possibilities. 

The Social Side. — There is a powerful social 
influence developed by bringing pupils together 
in school and class activities. Comparison and 
competition are always permanent factors in en- 
abling more to be done than could otherwise be 
obtained. It is thus that social relations produce 
a stimulus to better efforts because a child desires 
to stand well in the opinion of his associates, and 
hence he makes the endeavor to prove his fitness 
for their endorsement and their compliments. By 
such means the well-conducted school attains a 
power for good and for development that may be 



WHAT EDUCATION CAN DO 25 

overlooked. It is for this reason that good man- 
agement and good teaching are such paramount 
forces in bringing notable results. In the same 
way, though with different effects, the popular 
and successful teacher has great ability in direct- 
ing and controlling the pupils when at work. In 
the right conditions direction and control on the 
part of the teacher are always acceptable and ca- 
pable. Here is where intelligence, scholarship, 
knowledge of human nature, and skill as an in- 
structor all play a great part in bringing results 
that would otherwise be impossible. The social 
side of the school has a decisive effect in securing 
perfect attendance, punctuality, good lessons, and 
application to the tasks assigned. 

The Country Environment. — In the study of 
these things it must be recognized that the coun- 
try boy and girl have a great advantage provid- 
ing they are surrounded by normal conditions. 
There is, then, every reason to encourage ambi- 
tion, inspire enthusiasm, and cultivate prosperity, 
the most important factors of permanent success. 
Education from this stand-point is life itself and 
not preparation for life; it is the experience that 
a developing, expanding, improving personality 
must have, and hence it is neither artificial, im- 
material, nor unsatisfactory. The country school 
prospers when this attitude toward civilization is 



26 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

comprehended and assumed, when this endeavor 
to accomplish is in the spirit of the people them- 
selves, and when teachers and study and expen- 
ditures in the training of youth are all assumed 
to be the most important investments that hu- 
manity can make. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 

The Past. — Systems of keeping records of the 
progress of the pupils have been adopted by school 
superintendents and school boards in order to 
have the new teachers know the past attendance, 
progress, and success of the pupils enrolled in the 
schools. These records may or may not be valu- 
able, all depending upon the care and the capabil- 
ity with which they have been kept and their cor- 
rectness as to the condition of scholarship and 
attainments that the pupils have acquired. Unless 
these records show the exact facts they are useless 
to the superintendent, the school board, and even 
to the teacher. As it happens, there is more or 
less lack of interest in being exact in coming to the 
conclusions that are to be recorded, and equally a 
common disposition to be careless because the 
teacher assumes that these records are useless and 
that they are required simply to comply with law 
and with the regulations of the system adopted 
by the county superintendent or with needless re- 
quirements made by the school board. Even 
when the largest honesty has been given and the 

27 



28 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

greatest care has been shown, yet the information 
is not of a kind nor of a quality that will relieve 
the new teacher of the necessity of completely re- 
organizing and reclassifying the school. 

The Present. — A country school of any term is 
not a duplicate of either its predecessor or its suc- 
cessor. Its present needed work depends entirely 
upon the pupils now in attendance, and its pro- 
gramme of classes and the time that should be al- 
lotted are positively regulated by the size of the 
several classes and the kind of lessons now to be 
taught. Hence, a teacher must thoroughly in- 
vestigate the qualifications, the capabilities, and 
the condition of knowledge that each pupil can 
show. While this investigation is really an ex- 
amination in every line of work maintained by the 
school, yet it is the only true way to ascertain the 
kind of work at the outset that can be profitably 
offered to each individual pupil and the place in 
the work where the pupil should begin. The old- 
time country school of years ago started every 
pupil every term at the very first lesson in reading, 
arithmetic, grammar, geography, and history in 
the text-books. This was not a bad plan, if dis- 
cretion and judgment were carefully used, because 
as much progress was permitted from day to day 
as the present knowledge of the pupils allowed. 
Such a plan of reviewing the fundamentals was 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 29 

very valuable provided the important and basic 
things were selected and the comprehension was 
taken as a guide to the teacher's assignment of 
the work to be done. 

The Basic Subjects. — In all primary classes 
reading constitutes the basic subject in determin- 
ing classification. This is due to the fact that 
every other subject taught to the pupils of this age 
and development depends for success very largely 
upon the ability to read. Number work, language 
lessons, nature studies, history and geography 
studies, and all other phases of information in- 
struction depend upon the success that the pupil 
has in getting knowledge from the printed page. 
Hence, all elementary text-books in arithmetic, 
science, and history are prepared as a variable 
kind of reading-books, in order to give the pupil 
the opportunity to master the art of reading. In 
all the more advanced classes arithmetic consti- 
tutes an important basic subject because there 
is a dependence of one part upon the part that 
has gone before and hence there is a regular 
sequence that cannot be omitted. This is not 
equally true with geography, history, or other in- 
formational studies, as the entire omission of some 
chapters and parts does not interfere materially 
with a pupil's taking up succeeding chapters or 
parts that occur in the text-books. For these 



30 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

reasons reading and arithmetic become the basis 
of almost all classification that it is necessary to 
make in this class of schools. 

Grading. — Plans and systems of grading coun- 
try schools have been frequently recommended as 
being helpful in producing a more satisfactory 
condition of the work. For the average coun- 
try school classification is desirable and possible, 
while grading is to be considered as more theoreti- 
cal than practical. The advocates of grading as- 
sume that class instruction is superior to individual 
instruction, and that the so-called graded school 
is notably a better school than a country school. 
Now, grading is necessary in the crowded city 
school for the purpose of managing the work 
economically, and just for a similar reason classi- 
fication — the putting of each pupil in each branch 
of study where he belongs — is just as essential in 
a country school. A reasonably close classifica- 
tion gives all the advantages needed to both 
teacher and pupils, and the progress will be as 
rapid as the capabilities of the pupils allow. 

Seating. — There should be a definite plan of 
seating the pupils of a country school, conforming 
particularly to the comfort and to the convenience 
of all concerned — the larger pupils at the larger 
desks and the smaller pupils at the smaller desks, 
as the furniture may admit. If recitation seats 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SCHOOL 31 

are provided, the assignment of the pupils on these 
for each class should depend upon the eyesight and 
the hearing, defective conditions needing to be 
specially favored by receiving this special atten- 
tion. All seating of pupils in the beginning should 
be temporary, so that changes may be made at 
any time that the teacher regards it necessary for 
the good of the order or work of the school. A 
policy of allowing pupils to feel that they have 
some special rights in regard to seating because 
they were there the earliest the first morning, or 
because they were located there last year, or any 
other plan is not desirable, because the good and 
the right of all should be the final basis of decision. 
Other Arrangements. — There are many other 
arrangements that the teacher should manage and 
control. The place where each pupil should hang 
his coat, the part of the cupboard in which he 
should place his dinner basket, the place where he 
should place his hat, should all be worked out in a 
sensible, convenient, and systematic plan. The 
way that pupils should make requests to withdraw 
from the room for cause, the plan of allowing them 
to get a reference book or a drink of water, the 
system of taking their books out of the desk to 
begin their work, the best method of returning 
these books to the desk when through using them, 
the order in which each pupil's books should be 



32 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

placed on each other in the desk, together with all 
other things which are a part of good organization 
and of a fair and complete understanding, should 
be fully comprehended by those concerned. It 
is thus that the conduct of the school becomes 
simple and systematic at the very opening day, 
and that the teacher's executive skill and ability 
are recognized and accepted by all the pupils as 
deserving of commendation. 

Stimulation. — Organization has as its positive 
end the stimulation of the work and the arousing 
of interest. A school is a place for the pupils to 
acquire training, not to be mere absorbers of what 
the teacher knows. It is the nursery or laboratory 
where pupils are taught to do things by actually 
doing them, and when that is done enjoyment is 
the result, progress is secured, and educational 
efforts are rewarded. The pupils are to do the 
talking, the reading, the thinking, the writing, the 
drawing. They are to sing the songs, to recite 
the poems, to tell the stories, to draw the pictures, 
and to execute the exercises. By such means 
their intellectual life is strengthened, their moral 
life is developed, and the capability to act intelli- 
gently and prudently becomes what is called char- 
acter and personality. 



VI 

THE SCHOOL HOUSE AND GROUNDS 

The Needs. — The country school has changed in 
many important particulars in the passing of a 
generation because of the revolution that has come 
in conditions, necessities, and demands. Where 
these facts have been recognized and proper pro- 
vision made, the country school has entered upon 
a new chapter in history and is fulfilling its prov- 
ince as the handmaid of civilization. The pres- 
ent-day needs have made the country school- 
house the centre of numerous activities that must 
belong to the community, and for the same reason 
they have made the country school-grounds the 
demonstration garden or farm of the community. 
If these are not associated with the school work 
and the communal life, then the attempts of the 
school are barren of results and the efforts at ed- 
ucation are only partial and incomplete. These 
needs must be apparent to every wide-awake 
school district, because it is possible for a people 
to do as a mass what they could never accom- 
plish fractionally or individually. These demon- 
stration gardens have become a necessity for the 

33 



34 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

pupils, and would be helpful to all the people, be- 
cause they are the laboratory of the school for 
agricultural improvement and scientific investi- 
gation. In the same way the kind of school build- 
ing that should be provided for the use jointly of 
the school and of the people is a much broader 
and more important question than has been thus 
far supposed by the majority of those who deter- 
mine the public interests. 

The House.— The old-fashioned one-room school- 
house, limited to desks and blackboards, cupboards 
and heating stove, was a response to the demands 
of fifty years ago, but it is not at all in keeping with 
the progress that has been experienced on every 
hand in all other lines of social, intellectual, and in- 
dustrial activity. To-day the country school-house 
needs abundant room for recitation, for assembly 
of pupils and people, for recreation purposes for all, 
for laboratory work for young and mature alike, 
and for demonstration work in agriculture, home 
economics, and all lines that modern education 
undertakes. These opportunities must be pro- 
vided in order that the teaching demanded may 
be possible to be given and that the kind of prac- 
tical training requested may be able to be secured. 
The people must prepare their plans as large as 
the size of the problem to be undertaken, and they 
must invest in such means and privileges that the 



THE SCHOOL HOUSE AND GROUNDS 35 

school can actually become the centre of com- 
munity interests, endeavors, and activities. With- 
out this, progress is delayed and training hindered. 
The Scope. — Every suitable public-school build- 
ing should have accommodations for the people 
of the school district, such rooms as will permit 
them to have lyceums, farmers' meetings, lecture 
courses, exhibits of products, and public discussion 
and tests of all problems that affect their work and 
their success. Country life to be happy and to be 
satisfactory must have opportunities for the social 
development and culture that such conveniences 
would provide. Such opportunities would so de- 
velop the kind of conditions that farming and 
farm life require that country life and country 
occupations could become more attractive, more 
co-operative and more successful than even city 
life and city occupations could be. There is no 
other single organized effort except the public 
school that can assume these proportions, and for 
that reason it is selected as the place where expan- 
sion should be made and where improvement 
should be realized to its fullest extent. Even if 
this plan requires that the school-houses should 
be three times as capacious as they are to-day, the 
investment demanded is very moderate when it is 
recognized that this enlarged organization gives 
opportunity for every kind of activity that a com- 



36 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

munity needs, and at the same time unites all the 
people to the work of the public school so that 
education of the pupils is not alone the care of the 
teacher, but also of every individual that can con- 
tribute of knowledge and experience to the body 
of information that all should learn. 

The Sanitation. — This expansion of the service 
of the country school-house, this enlargement of 
its scope and of its advantages gives also abundant 
opportunity to provide scientifically for ventila- 
tion, regulated heating, pure-water supply, per- 
fect lighting of the rooms by suitable windows 
properly located, correct sanitation as to sewerage 
and cleanliness — in fact, all the things that are 
helpful to the homes as well as to the school, since 
the introduction of these modern notions of science 
into the school building will do much to educate 
the community to better ways of protecting life 
and health than are in common use. In no way 
can a people learn science so well as by demon- 
stration, and when these truths have been fully 
comprehended better standards will be introduced 
into the homes in such great measure that tuber- 
culosis and contagious diseases will be greatly re- 
duced in violence and even in possibility to exist. 

The Shop. — Every country school should have 
reasonable facilities to teach the occupations of 
the shop and of the home to a limited extent. 



THE SCHOOL HOUSE AND GROUNDS 37 

Where this is properly done the larger boys and 
girls will not be found leaving their home school 
to enter the city schools, because they will see that 
such instruction gives competence, enlarges op- 
portunities to make good wages, and insures a 
practical training that is invaluable. Cooking, 
sewing, and other activities such as simple tasks in 
carpentry and other practical callings are never to 
be successfully conducted in the country schools 
until all these necessary equipments and facilities 
have been obtained and teachers are encouraged 
to enter upon such instruction as a regular part of 
the course of study. 

Agriculture. — When it comes to the practical 
instruction in farming that is necessary to a com- 
munity, it must be realized that it is not alone the 
children that are to be benefited by the instruc- 
tion in agriculture and related sciences that the 
organized work of the school undertakes to ac- 
complish. These things are a community afFair 
rather than a pupil affair and as a consequence 
large school grounds for demonstration work and 
for instruction are an absolute necessity. This 
conception of rural education assumes that there 
are large needs to be met in all these directions, and 
that the mothers and the fathers, the young peo- 
ple and the children, are all to be instructed in the 
things that increase prosperity, insure happiness, 



38 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

and enlarge possibility. The people of the coun- 
try communities have great things to do, they de- 
serve to be given the best information and the best 
help that this progressive age affords, and they 
should have in their schools and on their dem- 
onstration farms the best-trained and the best- 
qualified persons that can be obtained. When 
this is done in a proper way the returns for labor 
will be much greater, the products marketed will 
be more perfect and more valuable, while the in- 
come from farming will be more general and more 
certain. There is no other occupation that re- 
quires a man or a woman to be more studious, be- 
cause there is no other occupation that has larger 
problems to solve. There is no other calling that 
requires more accurate scholarship, because the 
work of successful farming employs the broadest 
and the largest knowledge of many sciences. There 
is no other work that can give larger returns or 
that is more fundamental to civilization than that 
of country people, because they are notably inde- 
pendent, thoroughly prosperous, and absolutely 
competent, provided they invest largely in the 
things that train their minds, develop their capa- 
bilities, and enlarge their opportunities. 



VII 

THE ORGANIZATION OF A COUNTRY 
COMMUNITY 

Union of Effort. — The first step to progress and 
success in all public affairs is dependent upon 
proper organization and perfect co-operation. 
There must be union of effort in undertaking any 
such great movement as public education. This 
organization of society implies more than sup- 
porting the work by paying taxes, as the complete 
demands ask for the help of men and women as 
well as for the help of their money. To conduct 
such a great campaign as progress and improve- 
ment will demand calls for a very thorough or- 
ganization of the people, so that all the activities 
that should be maintained and developed may 
have persons selected to direct and to manage 
them. This plan of developing public opinion and 
public interest so as to get public action is the same 
system as that used by societies, churches, and 
other permanent undertakings for the public good. 

The School Board. — Since it is proposed to 
combine all these intellectual, social, moral, and 
industrial activities of a community with the 

39 



40 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

school, through holding all such meetings and con- 
ferences at the school building, it is self-evident 
that the school board will become the supervisory 
body that will provide the rooms, the equipment, 
and the general expenditures, and have control 
and administration of the property, whether used 
for one or another purpose. It will also become 
the business of the school board to recognize the 
organizations that should have these privileges, 
it being understood that only such organizations 
are legitimate as are acceptable to the people as a 
whole, all the meetings proposed being open to all 
persons of the community who may wish to at- 
tend. With this idea as a basis for work, it is 
now proposed to set out some of the organized 
activities that should be conducted for the benefit 
of the people of a good American community. 

The Literary Club.— This organization has its 
place in every school district, as it provides a 
means whereby the people and the pupils can hold 
meetings once or twice a month in which the Ly- 
ceum idea is dominant. The programmes should 
consist of addresses, essays, papers on practical 
subjects, debates on public questions, dramatic 
exercises, personal reports on conventions, and 
recitations and declamations. The influence of 
such a club is far-reaching, as it trains the people 
for competency and efficiency in public work. In 



ORGANIZATION OF A COUNTRY COMMUNITY 41 

addition to that it gives results to study, read- 
ing, and observation that have a large educational 
effect upon the community as a whole. This plan 
gives a combination of the people without regard 
to age, attainments, interests, or occupation, and 
at the same time inspires investigation and culti- 
vates sympathy. 

The Science Club. — There is particular reason 
why a special organization should be formed that 
will have in view the progress and the improve- 
ments of the times. In this club, agriculture, 
domestic science, electricity, aviation, experimen- 
tal endeavors, and other live topics and discus- 
sions could be considered. Its officers and mem- 
bers should have in view the consideration of 
everything that contributes to the physical health, 
the personal happiness, or the sanitary welfare 
of the community. These problems studied may 
involve much that adds to the money value of 
the crops, of the dairy, of the poultry yard, and of 
the stock-raising, so that what may be known 
or learned by the more progressive and the more 
energetic may thus become the knowledge and the 
information of others with less initiative and less 
capability as investigators. By this kind of work 
the value of the farms of the community will be 
increased by better application, by better spirit, 
by better results, and by better social conditions. 



42 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

The knowing how to improve appearances, how 
to get better fruit, how to care for trees and shrubs, 
and how to investigate many other important 
sources of information and service goes a long 
way toward making this world a better place for 
mankind. Such meetings, occurring at stated 
times not less than once a month, would be of 
growing interest and of incalculable benefit. 

The Singing Club. — There are always enough 
young people and others that like music to main- 
tain a club whose chief purpose will be the cul- 
tivating of the community in the art of song. 
The possibilities and accomplishments of such an 
organization can hardly be appreciated by com- 
munities where such efforts have not been tried. 
Even small bands, orchestras, and other musical 
societies can be organized in many localities, giv- 
ing instrumental and vocal music combined, to 
increase the culture and the artistic taste of the 
people. There is always some one who has leader- 
ship and personal gifts that can be found, either 
in the community or near at hand, who is able to 
develop such an organization into efficiency and 
helpfulness. These things are not as far away as 
they seem, when the will of the people is combined 
to get desirable results. 

The Women's Club. — These are the days when 
the women of a community are taking a large part 



ORGANIZATION OF A COUNTRY COMMUNITY 43 

in public affairs. The women of the towns and 
cities have found such organizations very profit- 
able and very pleasant, and there is no single good 
reason why the women of a country community 
should not enjoy equal opportunities and privi- 
leges. In the days of the telephone, the automo- 
bile, the air-ship, and rural-mail delivery, there 
are many reasons why the women of the country 
should seek their own betterment and social wel- 
fare by securing the touch of club study and club 
discussion that the reorganized and enlarged edu- 
cational plan would give. By such a system of 
co-operation country life would be more agree- 
able to women, their burdensome duties would be 
much lightened by social relaxation, while their 
happiness and contentment would be permanently 
secured. 

Other Activities. — In addition to these things, 
so essential and so helpful in educational ways, 
there can be added courses of lectures, entertain- 
ments of various kinds, community concerts, so- 
cial meetings, political and religious meetings, or 
any other conferences that the people of the com- 
munity could agree to arrange from year to year 
or from time to time. In these days of the farm- 
ers' short courses, the agricultural-school-extension 
lecturers, and of commercial enterprises of such 
variety, there is no lack of material for such public 



44 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

meetings and conferences, if they are considered 
desirable, with small expense to the organizations 
maintained. Then there could be school exhibi- 
tions, school concerts, dramatic entertainments, 
and other such activities as the more rare occasions 
may produce, not forgetting the annual commu- 
nity dinner, the school picnics, and the other 
pleasant affairs that are to be expected as a mat- 
ter of course. 

Competition. — These interests will have the ef- 
fect of developing friendly competition among 
the pupils of the school, among the people of 
the community, and among the people of two or 
more communities, all of which would increase in- 
terest, insure action, and compel better efforts for 
the future. There could be fairs of all kinds ar- 
ranged, prizes for superiority, interpretations of 
methods and causes that produced the best re- 
sults, and tests of skill and effort as to work and as 
to education. This co-operation could be brought 
to such a high grade of effectiveness that success 
would be honored, knowledge would be valued, 
and victory esteemed. It would mean a great deal 
to boys and girls to live in such an environment, 
to have the experience of such contact with their 
superiors, and to acquire so much of the practical 
and of the real as a part of every-day study, work, 
and entertainment. 



VIII 

THE PROGRAMME 

The Necessity. — It is of large importance in 
conducting a country school that everything have 
a place and a time, so that all concerned may be 
prepared to meet the requirements that must be 
imposed. A thorough understanding is a notable 
essential, because then system and order prevail 
and harmony of action becomes possible. The 
programme adopted must provide as much for the 
preparation of the work as for the recitations and 
other exercises that are conducted by the teacher, 
as the time of preparation is of equal importance 
to the later presentation. So far as the pupils are 
concerned, it can be of more importance, since it is 
likely to determine their progress and develop- 
ment. The necessity for this systematic organiza- 
tion will be easily recognized when it is realized 
that the success that is being sought depends 
largely upon the ultimate definiteness of manage- 
ment that the teacher provides. 

The System. — The properly prepared schedule 
of work is not a confused jumble of things that 
must be arranged without regard to suitability 

45 



46 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of time or of sequence, as such a plan takes into 
account the laws of mental endurance and of 
mental activity. When this is done the energies 
are conserved, the right capabilities are employed, 
and the largest returns are received, with the least 
expenditure of time and effort. All these things 
must be considered when a programme is being 
constructed, since its very orderliness and its par- 
ticular system make the several duties more rea- 
sonable and more possible. 

The Mind. — Experience has taught that the hu- 
man mind has a certain order of development from 
infancy to maturity, and that this order must be 
known when the kind of work that individual pu- 
pils can do is decided. A proper understanding 
and application of the knowledge thus obtainable 
enables the teacher to conduct the work wisely in 
every sense. This order of development is as fol- 
lows: perception, memory, imagination, judgment, 
and reasoning; perceiving power appearing first 
in child-life, and reasoning power appearing last. 
By perceiving is meant the capability of the child to 
learn about things through the senses. The results 
of this mental activity are called perceptions. By 
memory is meant the capability of the child to re- 
tain the perceptions he has had so that the im- 
pressions he has received may be permanent 
and usable. Memory is of many kinds and is 



THE PROGRAMME 47 

governed by the variety of experiences in per- 
ception that a child may have. By imagination 
is meant the capability of the child to restore to 
his mind impressions of objects, things, and ex- 
periences that he may have had. By it he de- 
scribes people that he has met, animals he has 
seen, and any other objects he has once perceived. 
It is this power that enables him to give reality to 
his reading, to his study of geography, and to any 
other work that deals with realities. By judgment 
is meant the ability of the child to construct sen- 
tences and express opinions about any things he 
has known. To do this he must have a realization 
of general ideas as separate from individual ideas, 
so that the name horse, or plant, or stone does 
not mean any particular horse, or plant, or stone. 
That is, his many perceptions must have become 
general notions or conceptions. This is equally 
true with all words that are found in the sen- 
tences the child writes or speaks, as judgment is a 
combination of these general notions, at least two 
such notions being necessary to the formation of a 
statement. To illustrate: in the sentence "Birds 
fly, " there are two conceptions represented by the 
words birds and fly, but the union of these into 
one sentence makes up a judgment. As judgment 
involves many varieties of conceptions and stand- 
ards of expression, this explanation deals only with 



48 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the simplest and most direct forms. By reasoning 
is meant the child's ability to pass from a combina- 
tion of statements or conclusions to a new conclu- 
sion of a higher grade of opinion, thus becoming 
capable of dealing comprehensively more and more 
with abstract notions of higher and higher degrees 
of difficulty. Education has to do with so train- 
ing the mental faculties that the thinking powers 
of the pupils become more and more serviceable in 
developing usable and effective conclusions. 

The Order. — This known order of mental de- 
velopment gives a key to the kind of teaching that 
can be done. The very youngest school children 
have strong perceptive powers and some little 
memory, with very unreliable imagination. This 
accounts for some of their assumed marvellous ex- 
periences, since what they imagine seems to them 
to be as true as what they perceive. Those a 
little older have equivalent perception, more re- 
liable memory, and more certain imagination, but 
very uncertain judgment on anything they have 
experienced or thought, as their touch with things 
has not yet trained them to have trustworthy 
opinions or definite conclusions. In like manner, 
those who are nearly mature in their mental de- 
velopment become capable of judging and reason- 
ing, as well as of perceiving, remembering, or im- 
agining. The efficiency of these powers depends* 



THE PROGRAMME 49 

upon the condition of energy. Even persons of 
maturity, when they have their energy reduced 
by fatigue or by illness, become incapable of rea- 
soning, judging, imagining, and even remembering. 
This is so decidedly true that it is necessary to so 
carefully plan school work that those things need- 
ing the highest forms of mental activity be given 
a place on the programme when mental energy is 
at its best. For a similar reason the forenoon 
hours are more effective than the afternoon hours, 
and the first parts of the forenoon or afternoon ses- 
sions than the last parts of the same sessions. 
This knowledge of the order of the faculties los- 
ing their efficiency as mental energy declines 
gives a reason for the method of instruction that 
ought to be used as well as the method of study 
that can be employed in undertaking either recita- 
tion or preparation. What should be first in the 
day and what should be last in the day becomes, 
therefore, a matter of sensible judgment on the 
part of the teacher. 

Applications. — A few applications of these prin- 
ciples will assist the teacher. Arithmetic in the 
primary classes and arithmetic in the advanced 
classes cannot be one and the same in either 
subject matter, method of instruction, or method 
of study. Number work is more language than 
mathematics. It is for this reason that it is im- 



50 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

possible to teach anything but the most concrete 
and the more graphic types of arithmetic in the 
lower grades and also why many branches of study 
have no place in the kindergarten or the primary 
age. It is also true that the teaching of any sys- 
tem of number or of any kind of elementary arith- 
metic in the lower grades can never relieve the 
necessity of teaching those kinds of arithmetic in 
the advanced grades which demand judgment and 
reason and the higher processes of thinking. The 
adaptation of the work being done for the pupil, 
so as to suit his age and development, is the most 
important thing to do in all kinds of teaching. 
This fact explains why algebra is adapted to the 
higher development of the mind, being more gen- 
eral and more abstract in its form of represen- 
tation and calculation than is arithmetic in its 
simpler types. It is not just another way of per- 
forming the same operations commonly assigned 
to arithmetic, since it was invented to suit the 
needs of higher methods of thinking and reasoning. 
Adaptation. — It is necessary to do the teaching 
from day to day, even to the same class, so as to 
adapt the work to the mental condition. If the 
mental energy is at a high grade, the plan of teach- 
ing may properly call into the use of the lesson the 
higher faculties, but if the contrary condition ex- 
ists the modification must be made to meet the 



THE PROGRAMME 51 

emergency that is found. Good teaching means 
admirable adaptation, ready adjustment to the 
situation that exists, and the employment of the 
full capability of the pupil being instructed. It 
becomes necessary to know personally the pupils 
that are being taught to be able to measure their 
general and special capabilities, and thus lead 
them to so use their powers that they may grow 
in efficiency and serviceableness. 

The Time Element. — Custom has determined 
that six hours shall constitute the average school 
day. In these six hours there may be wisely 
placed two recess periods of fifteen minutes each. 
Some good teachers would dispense with the re- 
cesses as waste of time, and as contributing to dis- 
order, but the hygienists and the medical profes- 
sion uniformly approve of these brief rest and 
recreation periods as beneficial to the physical 
and mental condition of the pupils. Long school 
hours are not necessarily able to give decidedly 
larger results, because there is a limit as to time for 
profitable and effective study or attention. It is 
probable that two hours in the morning and two 
hours in the afternoon are enough of vigorous ap- 
plication for the average child, and that the time 
that is assigned beyond that does not give any 
appreciably better results. When long hours are 
required, it remains for the teacher to spend much 



52 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of the time over four hours in exercises that require 
little mental energy and less application. To this 
end the programme should give a chance for rest 
and for relief as well as for study and for recitation. 
The Model Programme. — There is no necessity 
of dividing the hours of the school day into as 
many small parts as there are distinct kinds of 
work to give to all the pupils of the school. In 
addition, it is not necessary that every subject be 
given a class recitation every day. In fact, where 
the classes are many for the number of pupils, as 
most country schools will show, it would be better 
to have each recitation of good length, even if 
there were only three such recitation hours a week. 
Then there is a possibility of doing much individ- 
ual work, all the time eliminating the necessity of 
having a recitation of a special character each day 
in every organized class. Schools are so individual 
in their needs that a programme must be made to 
suit the requirements of each one. There must 
be a specific time to study and a specific time to 
recite, in the regular programme. The variations 
necessary from day to day as to the different sec- 
tions can be made as the best interests require, 
but it becomes important that the teacher give 
actual attention to each section at the time stated 
on the programme, in so far as the necessities of 
each particularly require at that time. 



THE PROGRAMME 53 

PROPOSED GENERAL PROGRAMME OF 
RECITATION 

9.00- 9.10. Opening Exercises varied from day to day to 
suit the different grades of pupils. 

Primary Advanced 

9.10-10.30. Reading and Spelling. Arithmetic. 

10.30-10.45. Recess. Recess. 

1 0.45-1 1.30. Numbers. Language and Spelling. 

11.30-12.00. Penmanship and Penmanship and 

Drawing. Drawing. 
12.00- 1. 00. Noon intermission; playground work. 

1. 00- 1. 15. Singing and other exercises. 

i.l 5- 2.15. Language and Read- Geography and His- 

ing. tory. 

2.15- 2.30. Recess. Recess. 

2.30-3.30. General Exercises and Reading and Litera- 

Drills. ture. 

3.30- 4.00. Hygiene and Health. Physiology and Hy- 
giene. 
4.00 Dismissal. 

Alternation. — This programme provides for an 
alternation of classes, since primary and advanced 
grades are in the same school. The system of al- 
ternation allows the work to be so arranged that 
oral lessons and written lessons may be given on 
different days, thus allowing a teacher practically 
to have two or more sections of the school doing 
some kind of reciting at the same time. In addi- 
tion, this plan has special merit in that it gives the 
teacher a systematic plan of dealing fairly with 



54 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

all the pupils, providing that each one gets his rea- 
sonable share of attention and supervision. Direc- 
tion, guidance, instruction, and assistance are al- 
ways necessary and there is no other plan that in 
a superior way insures economy of time, ready 
means to maintain discipline, and actual recogni- 
tion of the progress of all that belong to the school. 
The Study Programme. — In providing a study 
programme it is necessary to recognize that only 
certain branches, like arithmetic, geography, his- 
tory, and physiology, are specially benefited by 
study of the pupil independent of the teacher. 
Most advanced pupils ought to do a certain 
amount of night study. What this should be de- 
pends somewhat upon the independence of the 
pupils as students. It is easier as a rule to suc- 
ceed with information studies, like history, ge- 
ography and physiology, rather than with drill 
studies, like arithmetic and language, and hence 
the assignment should determine what is best in 
the individual case. In the primary classes the 
time of study should always precede the time of 
recitation, yet nearly all the effective work ac- 
complished is done when the teacher is in charge 
and the study or the recitation is under super- 
vision. Whatever plan is employed the constant 
attention of the teacher is required to secure 
efficiency in results. 



IX 

MANAGEMENT 

Aims. — Acceptable school management has cer- 
tain definite characteristics that are always pres- 
ent in some degree. The prudent teacher observes 
these things and makes their accomplishment 
his aim. He realizes that a prosperous school 
must be well managed, and that its efficiency 
depends upon what he can procure from the pu- 
pils by indirection. There is a necessity for a 
reasonable degree of quiet in all respects that are 
not a part of the school work, and therefore he 
endeavors to cultivate habits that will give this 
result without his personal supervision. There is 
good reason for implicit submission to the requests 
of the teacher, as some one must decide the ques- 
tions that arise as to procedure and as to pro- 
gramme, and consequently he adopts policies and 
plans that can be easily understood and readily 
executed. There is no way to have the work 
satisfactorily succeed unless all movements are 
orderly and comprehended, and hence he instructs 
the pupils in a system of tactics that make orderli- 
ness a custom by giving every one a place. These 
aims are a part of the executive work making the 

55 



56 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

teacher as much subject to law and to regulations 
as any of the pupils. For these reasons he must 
be particularly observant of the customs and hab- 
its that have been adopted, in so far as his own 
obedience and faithfulness are concerned. By so 
doing he becomes an effective example, since by 
his action he sincerely honors the school customs. 

Obedience. — Every individual in a school is 
subject to the rules, regulations, and plans that are 
adopted. The teacher will find it harder for him- 
self to obey these laws of the school than would be 
supposed, because he must be the typical repre- 
sentative of obedience. It is a common thing to 
find teachers act as if school regulations have been 
adopted for the pupils alone, assuming that teach- 
ers are really above such arbitrary control; yet 
the successful teacher will not ask for any such 
preference or consideration. He is not tardy, he 
is not noisy, he is not lacking in preparation of 
his lessons, he is not angry, he is not deceitful — be- 
cause he desires his pupils to be free from these 
bad tendencies in conduct and because he recog- 
nizes that he must be a living exemplar of the vir- 
tues and the conduct that he aims to have his 
pupils possess if he comprehends the value and 
the importance of obedience. 

Types. — The teacher's conduct goes farther in 
producing effects than would at first be realized. 



MANAGEMENT 57 

The teacher who would have a quiet school must 
talk in such a moderate tone, must move about 
the room in such an unobtrusive manner, must so 
lead in the work that orderliness and quiet are 
sympathetically obtained and not secured by com- 
mand or by formal instruction. The teacher's 
manner has a contagious effect, if the person- 
ality and acceptability are such as they should 
be. The teacher's spirit has a marvellous influ- 
ence in dominating the spirit of the school, be- 
cause maturity, superiority, and good-nature are 
degrees of effectiveness that cannot be rejected or 
declined by impressionable persons like pupils. 
In attempting to improve conditions of any kind 
that are found in a school, the teacher must estab- 
lish the types that are essential to be developed and 
then exemplify these in every-day conduct. 

The Expected. — School management of a cred- 
itable kind is assumed by the people and the 
pupils as a proper part of a teacher's work. It 
signifies that the teacher anticipates the difficul- 
ties that will occur and that he prevents the nor- 
mal actions that would follow these results by the 
removal of the causes and by substituting other 
activities that produce the kind of results that a 
good school needs. It is thus that probabilities 
are recognized and are changed into possibilities 
that conform to the needs of the school work. 



58 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

The characteristics of good school management 
are made a reality by knowing what are desirable 
and executively bringing them to pass. It is thus 
that certain phenomena are expected and sought 
as showing a reasonable effective normal condi- 
tion. Some of the things that must be realized 
are able to be stated in the following series of facts, 
that are evidence of good executive control: 

1. Good management is unobtrusive and capa- 
ble in its forms and actions, not drawing the inter- 
est or the attention of the pupils away from the 
planned work by fixing them on the mutable con- 
ditions that arise and that discipline exacts. 

2. Good management is of a nature that it does 
not occupy a large place in the gossip or the dis- 
cussion of the people of a community, as its spirit 
and its endeavors keep prominent the real things 
that the school represents and suppress the activi- 
ties that create discord and controversy. 

3. Good management does not permit the em- 
phasis to be placed upon the authority and the 
legal province of the teacher, thereby constantly 
advertising him as a physical and personal power 
that must be reckoned with, if violations of rules 
or regulations occur. 

4. Good management does not exhibit itself by 
methods that impress the pupils consciously that 
they are being directed, controlled, and restricted 



MANAGEMENT 59 

by the will of the teacher, rather than that they 
are being influenced and led by the kindness and 
the helpfulness of the teacher. 

5. Good management never absorbs the thought, 
the time, or the strength of the teacher in main- 
taining a reasonable discipline, because it so uses 
the capabilities of the pupils in the activities of the 
school that such considerations are unnecessary. 

The Function of Skill. — The marks of genuine 
skill are always accompaniments of good control 
and good administration. The function of skill is 
worthy of being comprehended since it has much 
to do with improvement and more to do with 
success. The acquiring of skill is the dominant 
necessity of all who essay to teach, and toward its 
development and its efficiency every effort should 
be directed. Skill is shown in the school: (1) by 
the work being so conducted that the energy 
and the self-activity of the pupils is absorbed by 
proper and legitimate lines of endeavor; (2) by the 
methods of instruction being made so interesting 
and so attractive that the pupils' attention is so 
fully occupied that no opportunity remains for 
other kinds of interest; (3) by the work being so 
varied that systematic relief is given to the com- 
mon monotony and tendency of school employ- 
ments, thus relieving fatigue and exhaustion by 
change of occupation at the proper time; (4) by 



60 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the teaching being made so entertaining and so 
pleasing that the mental faculties are constantly 
kept on the alert by the novelties and plans em- 
ployed; (5) by the lessons being so conducted that 
there yet remains for further study and investiga- 
tion on the part of the pupils much information 
that they can readily ascertain for themselves, and 
that they will desire to find out without any assist- 
ance; (6) by providing a condition of mind and of 
heart in the whole school as an organization such 
that sympathy aiid co-operation become large fac- 
tors, inspiring all to their best efforts by the cor- 
dial relationships that exist. 

The Centre of Interest. — Every school and every 
community has some dominant intellectual inter- 
est, some want that remains to be satisfied, some 
ideal that must be realized. To ascertain this 
central interest is a first consideration, because 
through the proper employment of this disposition 
toward self-activity the school becomes an agent 
to contribute to a realization that can be positively 
secured. The arousing of the intellectual powers 
of a pupil can easily be done whenever the teacher 
has discovered the pupil's centre of interest and 
has used this to create a desire for much differ- 
ent and more complex things. There is a proper 
trend that must be found and its aim utilized in 
order to enable both pupils and people fully to 



MANAGEMENT 61 

appreciate the work that is attempted to be done 
by the teacher of the school. It is such organized 
effort as this that unites mental activity and moral 
purpose so that plans are carried out and inten- 
tions realized. The spirit of the pupils is a vital 
force that gives the internal impulse and expands 
opportunities into realizations of the greatest ser- 
viceableness. That teacher who works out the 
problem of control by indirect means has deter- 
mined completely the types of conduct and the 
directions of motive that determine educational 
results. 



X 

SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 

Individuality. — Every school, as well as every 
teacher, has individuality that must be taken into 
consideration when determining the plans and the 
means of governing the pupils that constitute the 
school. What is the most appropriate, the most 
sensible, or the most effective depends entirely 
upon the characteristics that are found and the 
necessities that may arise. Government is al- 
ways a problem of the present, not one of the past 
or of the future. Whether there should be any 
such thing in reality depends upon necessity and 
emergency. Common-sense is a very important 
factor, and its application is the most certain means 
of reaching a satisfactory success. To undertake 
to substitute rules, regulations, and mechanical 
agencies for common-sense and for reasonable dis- 
cretion is a mistaken endeavor, because there can 
be no uniformity in method, no general type of 
punishment for mistakes, and no similar cases of 
offence to happen. The teacher is always supe- 
rior personally to any code of rules and should not 
bind his actions, conclusions, or decisions by at- 

62 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 63 

tempting to anticipate what may happen and why 
such conduct happens and what should be done 
to remedy the difficulties when they do arise. 

Perfection. — Conduct cannot be standardized 
and thus determined as to perfection so far as 
individuals are concerned. Children have their 
peculiarities, their incapabilities, and their short- 
comings largely because they are incomplete, im- 
perfect, and inexperienced, and they should be 
sympathetically and judiciously treated by their 
superiors. Perfection of conduct as to obedience, 
as to faithfulness, as to integrity, and as to sincerity 
is not to be expected of them, because they are 
under training and should have their ignorance 
removed, their lack of motive assisted, and their 
impulse to better things enlarged before they 
should be treated as offenders against the law or 
as deserving of physical punishment. The failure 
of children of public-school age to approximate 
in formal conduct to that assumed as right for a 
mature person should not discourage the teacher. 
Improvement in knowledge of the right, as well as 
in development of the strength to do right, is a 
constant and progressive influence on character. 
Justice is never the basis of adjustment of individ- 
ual cases, as the discipline of imperfect and unde- 
veloped human beings requires that training, in- 
struction, and guidance should be the foundation 



64 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of all improvement, while mercy and kindness 
should temper all efforts to seek the elimination of 
personal faults in either conduct or character. 

Vigilance. — Ideal conditions in school govern- 
ment are unattainable, because the immature 
personalities need help and guidance. They are al- 
ways meeting new problems in conduct, new situ- 
ations in experience, and new demands for addi- 
tional information as to right and wrong. Eternal 
vigilance can never be dropped by the school ad- 
ministrator, as there are always new causes for 
disorder, original opportunities to investigate the 
undesirable, and additional chances to test judg- 
ment and motive. Failure to reach expectations 
is common experience, evidence of disorganization 
and of decline of authority is a frequent occurrence, 
while unintentional and accidental transactions 
seem to possess characteristics that are intentional 
and carefully planned. The teacher must never 
depend on the interpretation of a mature mind as 
the right explanation for such phenomena of un- 
desirable and unfortunate conduct as constantly 
will appear in children's lives. The probabilities 
are that the motives may be much better than 
inferred and that the intention to conflict with the 
authority and wishes of the teacher did not exist. 
The task of disciplining a school is a constant yet 
gradual process of personal influence. It is by 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 65 

slow, quiet, unobtrusive stages that progress and 
improvement occur. After all other things have 
been tried, it will be found that the personal in- 
fluence and popular control of the teacher are 
the qualities that are of most permanent value. 

Complexity. — School government is not a sim- 
ple matter, as its dealings are with many kinds of 
personality, at many various ages, about many 
types of conduct and transactions. It is not pos- 
sible to reduce the things that are likely to occur 
to distinct formulae that will serve as keys to un- 
lock the problems as they arise. It cannot be 
reduced to a system that will have definite plans 
to which different methods can be applied. It 
properly belongs to a very complex institution 
that is as variable as the different pupils involved, 
and that calls for as much consideration and dif- 
ferentiation as all these individual characteristics 
could make combinations. It becomes, therefore, 
impossible to know just what will be the next 
thing to occur or to conclude what would be the 
best normal solution of the difficulties involved. 

The Problem Stated. — The management of 
children in a mass depends in the main upon cer- 
tain characteristic phases of relationship that are 
found to appeal to the individual in uniform ways. 
These instrumentalities are effective in different 
degrees upon different individuals, but after all 



66 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

they can be relied upon to produce certain posi- 
tive effects that are easily recognized. The qual- 
ity of these instrumentalities depends upon the 
efficiency in developing self-control that they 
produce, while their results are due to their accept- 
ance by the customs of society, to their adapta- 
bility to the spirit of the teacher, and to their 
satisfying the attitude of the pupils in the service 
of a single school conducted by a single teacher. 
These elements of government depend upon the 
grade of personal esteem possessed by the pupils, 
upon the individual standards of character train- 
ing they have reached, and upon the responsibility 
for success that they entertain as their part in the 
work the school is organized to do. 

The Factors Outlined. — Among all the influ- 
ences that effect school government the following 
are the more prominent: (i) the moral factor, 
(2) the intellectual factor, (3) the authority fac- 
tor, and (4) the force factor. 

(1) The moral factor reaches the feelings of 
the pupils through such characteristics as are de- 
veloped through personal companionship, involv- 
ing the spirit of the pupil toward the teacher and 
toward the school, seeking regularly and contin- 
ually the happiness and welfare of all. Here is 
found the personal popularity of the teacher with 
the pupils, including the love, respect, and esteem 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT 67 

that naturally exist and such general co-opera- 
tion, helpfulness, and affection as contribute freely 
to the advancement of all interests that the school's 
endeavor represents. It is not possible to enlarge 
too much upon the moral factor in seeking to im- 
prove the spirit and the conduct of the pupils that 
compose the membership of a school. 

(2) The intellectual factor is also a personal fac- 
tor to a large extent, though of minor quality as 
compared to the moral factor. It is more on the 
official side than the first, as it only exists because 
of the relationship provided by the organization 
of the school. There is less companionship, be- 
cause the teacher is recognized as superior in 
knowledge, experience, and wisdom. In such a 
situation excellent scholarship is influential, actual 
acquirements are effective, and notable wisdom 
and intelligence secure official respect, recognition, 
and confidence. 

(3) The authority factor may or may not be 
necessary. It is a complementary factor and be- 
comes eminently desirable when the moral factor 
and the intellectual factor combined are not strong 
enough to conduct harmoniously a school's activ- 
ities. Since there are teachers whose qualities in 
these two pre-eminent phases are not all-sufficient, 
it becomes necessary to hold the attention, to en- 
force study, and to control conduct by the use of 



68 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the authority conferred upon the teacher by law. 
Pupils under these circumstances do not have the 
most helpful atmosphere, because they obey, main- 
tain equilibrium, and try to accomplish their work 
rather than come into conflict with the teacher 
who is superior in physical strength and is capable 
by nature of enforcing the requirements that have 
been stated. The mere fact that freedom is re- 
strained, that decorum is artificial, that there is a 
choice between two assumed evils rather than two 
assumed goods makes this kind of government of 
lower grade than that obtained by reliance upon 
the feelings and the intellect. It is best to recog- 
nize that the persuasive tone is to be preferred to 
the demanding tone if it can accomplish the pur- 
pose and that it is harmful to constantly keep in- 
feriors conscious of their inferiority if real progress 
in self-government is to be sought. Threats, im- 
precations, accusations, boastful attitudes, and as- 
sumptions of superiority are always to be regarded 
as elements of inefficiency and as confessions of 
weakness in a teacher that even the pupils will 
easily recognize. 

(4) The force factor is still more rarely essential 
than the authority factor, as it belongs exclusively 
to those who make school work a kind of warfare 
rather than a kind of companionship. It is the 
final supplemental effort that can be employed^ 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT *= 69l 

because if it does not secure the control necessary 
the teacher must retire from the school because of 
incapability in government. This factor appears 
in numerous forms and in many means and meth- 
ods. Its strongest type is that of corporal punish- 
ment, but there are other devices, such as keep- 
ing pupils after school hours, depriving pupils of 
recesses and of other privileges, that are commonly 
employed to enforce control. These are just as 
destructive of the altruistic feelings which should 
exist between the pupils and the teacher, and are 
at times even more objectionable. The more com- 
mon forms may be classified under reproof, deten- 
tion, restriction, coercion, suspension, and expul- 
sion. These represent many forms and have many 
degrees of exaction and bitterness. So far as their 
use is concerned, when such inflictions become 
necessary, the mildest type is always the best and 
the surest to select. All of them are advertise- 
ments of the admitted incompetency of the teacher 
to reach his aims by more successful and more hu- 
mane means. Young teachers of limited experi- 
ence may be excused for weakness in the higher 
lines of humane government, since their later 
growth and improvement will magnify the powers 
that are the most effective. The wise and pro- 
gressive teacher soon identifies the permanent and 
the constructive with the moral and the intel- 



70 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

lectual factors and endeavors to have himself ap- 
proved by investigating the ways in which strength 
and ability may be turned into the most effective 
directions of human effort. 



XI 

TACTICS 

Purpose. — Every school needs a simple system 
of tactics that is well understood by all and that 
relieves the necessity of making every transaction 
a special order. The chief purpose of all tactics 
is to save the time of every one identified with the 
school. A country school should be so well or- 
ganized and so successfully managed that all the 
time allotted can be given to the educational work. 
When the tactics are well understood and have 
been carefully selected, they are self-explanatory, 
because they are founded on reason, they become 
a benefit alike to order, to study, and to recitation. 
Tactics are not substitutes for the work that teach- 
ers ought to do; they are plans of management that 
accomplish what the teachers ought not to do. It 
is necessary to suggest that tactics have their 
limitation and should not be invented for all sorts 
of conditions. A teacher may be too much of a 
tactician and spend more time and thought and 
effort upon the developing of the tactics he deems 
desirable than would be required to conduct the 
things sought without tactics. When it is neces- 

71 



72 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

sary to do similar things frequently and to do them 
in similar ways, then it is that tactics have a proper 
place. 

The Use. — Mechanical movements that are ex- 
ecuted by signals or by word of command must 
be justified on the basis of helpfulness, usefulness, 
and comprehensiveness. Even when it is well to 
have these movements depend upon a system of 
tactics, it must be recognized that simplicity rather 
than complexity should prevail and that the less 
such special organization or arbitrary management 
is required, the better it will be for the governing 
authority as well as for the pupils being directed. 
The maintaining of an arbitrary system of signals 
is very exhaustive upon the energy of a teacher, 
particularly if constant explanation as to their 
meaning or purpose is necessary. Common-sense 
should always prevail. There is no substitute for 
good judgment, for on it depends, after all, the 
eradication of abuses, the correction of evils, and 
the reform of bad conduct. Whenever any part of 
a system of tactics dispenses with judgment, with 
fair dealing, or with the freedom and rights of 
either teacher or pupils, the time has come for the 
teacher to adopt a new plan of management. 

Opening and Closing School. — The special kind 
of ceremonials which can best be used at the open- 
ing and at the closing of the daily session of a 



TACTICS 73 

school depends upon the arrangement of the room, 
the location of the door through which the pupils 
pass, the form of the hall that connects the school- 
room with the door, and the permitted rights 
and privileges of the playgrounds of the school. 
The system that may be suitable for one place is 
rarely serviceable for other places, unless the gen- 
eral conditions are practically identical. If play- 
ground privileges are general, and a large number 
of pupils take advantage of them, remaining at 
play as long as circumstances permit, then the 
tactics to be applied need to be more formal than 
they would need to be where the number of pupils 
is small and the need for formal procedure is un- 
necessary. When many pupils are to be managed, 
military precision should be employed and a reg- 
ular order of procedure should be adopted. In 
a similar way, dismissal from the room may be 
necessarily formal, and the precision required may 
be very exact, every pupil having his place and ev- 
ery one's turn being recognized. Whatever may be 
the plan, the orderly coming and going of masses 
of pupils must receive the most careful super- 
vision in order that accidents may be prevented, 
the rights of the weaker and the smaller preserved, 
and the authority of the teacher recognized. 

Overdiscipline. — Frequently the conditions are 
so unusual, the problems to be solved are so dif- 



74 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ficult, and the tactics to be enforced so dominant 
that a type of overdiscipline becomes a necessity. 
This appears prominently in inclement weather, 
in cases of panic or alarm, in situations where the 
disposition of the pupils is inimical to the teacher's 
authority, and at any other times when the unex- 
pected or the unusual appears. The teacher is 
sometimes compelled to be more on duty and more 
in control during recess and noon periods than dur- 
ing the session, because the problems involved are 
more urgent and the difficulties that arise need 
immediate adjustment. In dealing with these 
matters order and conduct of a reasonable grade 
are all that should be expected. There is such a 
thing as attempting to compel order and conduct 
of remarkable kinds that are beautiful to look 
upon, but suppressive in result and training. Such 
a system does not train in self-control or self- 
direction, and prevents the pupils from using their 
initiative and their capability in ways that contrib- 
ute to their proper development or their personal 
enjoyment and comfort. Suppression is wrong in 
principle and in training, as it does not lead to that 
independence or that self-adjustment that is es- 
sential to a happy and productive life. 

The School-Room. — Unless there is an abso- 
lute necessity for signals in the school-room they 
should not be used. Order and quiet may be 



TACTICS 75 

obtained by posture and by patiently waiting. 
Calmly standing in the presence of an audience 
is usually sufficient to secure attention in as short 
a time as any other method can procure. The 
ringing of a bell, the rapping on a desk, or the 
producing of any peculiar noise to secure attention 
is not necessarily as helpful as silent methods. A 
request is stated much more effectively when self- 
control and patience are manifested by the ad- 
ministrator. In a similar way the calling and the 
dismissing of classes, the sending of pupils to the 
blackboard, or the returning of them to their 
regular places should be secured with as little dis- 
play and tactical management as possible. In 
fact, the pupils can do these things in many in- 
stances without command, if there is a clock in the 
room and the programme is faithfully obeyed. 
The return of one class to their regular sittings 
may be employed as a signal for the calling of the 
next class recitation. If the teacher should omit 
the recognition of the fact that the time has come 
for the closing of a recitation, the members of the 
class whose recitation is due could stand in their 
places, thus calling attention to the fact that the 
time had come for a change in the work. 

Ingenuity and Novelty. — The best tactics rec- 
ognize a necessity to relieve monotony of every 
kind. Rigid forms of discipline, such as a definite 



76 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

posture at the desk, an exact method of getting 
excused from the room, a particular form of study, 
or other regular practices of the school, are not 
endurable. Ingenuity should be used to prepare a 
sensible plan to meet a certain condition in an 
individual school. To illustrate: a large school 
was very difficult to dismiss in the evening because 
of the arrangements possible for clothing and 
lunch-baskets. It occurred to the teacher to pro- 
pound a problem in addition and allow the first 
one who obtained the correct answer to get ready 
quietly to retire. The proper answer to the prob- 
lem was written on the blackboard after the dicta- 
tion was completed. Pupils who did not get this 
answer the first time made an additional trial. 
The scheme proved popular, it accomplished the 
purpose, and it was successful in giving an excel- 
lent drill in accuracy in addition as well as secur- 
ing a quiet dismissal. The results educationally 
were much more effective because the competition 
inspired the pupils with the desire to add large 
problems with positive accuracy. Thus novelty 
and originality count for much in school work. 
The less experience a teacher has, the more the 
reason to study out solutions for the problems of 
management and the more necessity to employ 
useful methods in securing a helpful discipline. 
To this end the becoming acquainted with the 



TACTICS 77 

persons and the names of the pupils the beginning 
day is of the greatest importance. The possession 
of this knowledge and the ability to use it are a 
great advantage in obtaining control of the school. 
This can easily be done by the teacher's drawing 
of a floor plan of the school-room and as the pu- 
pils are being enrolled by writing their names on 
the proper place in this drawing. By placing this 
floor plan on the desk the teacher can easily as- 
certain any name that is temporarily forgotten, by 
identifying the location of the pupil with the name 
on that plan. Such simple methods as these are 
often very helpful. 



XII 

EXAMINATIONS 

Their Place. — Formal, definite, written and oral 
examinations have their place in the work of a 
school if they are properly given and are not ex- 
aggerated in their purpose. They have a legiti- 
mate province that cannot be ignored, as without 
them there is a lack of training in accuracy of 
statement and of care in knowing things fully and 
exactly. There is always a chance for the over-use 
as well as the under-use of any such instrumentality 
as the examination. It is equally true of any other 
kind of method employed in school work. For- 
mal rules, regulations, and plans often continue in 
force beyond their usefulness and are abused, be- 
cause the teacher places system above judgment 
and theory above practice. There was a time 
when examination systems were regarded with 
such remarkable esteem that their abuses received 
no attention because they were considered as a 
necessity of the system. As a result weary, ex- 
haustive hours were required of both teachers and 
pupils in order to obtain results that were not 

commensurate with the strain and the torture in- 

78 



EXAMINATIONS 79 

flicted. This was caused very largely by the great 
importance and the definite decisions attributed 
to the system. These abuses are not a part of 
examinations when their object is normal and their 
use is reasonable. 

Their Province. — The iconoclast has attempted 
to break to pieces the idol of the school-master 
and the school committee by demanding the abo- 
lition of all examining systems, with the hope of 
substituting in their place the estimates and the 
opinions of the teacher for the records made in the 
formal examination. This theory of educational 
management has been so largely accepted that 
progressive teachers hesitate to use any system of 
examination for fear of the criticism that may be 
aroused. As a consequence of these looser methods 
the results in English spelling, in English composi- 
tion, and in accurate knowledge of literature, his- 
tory, and mathematics are not up to the standard 
maintained during the prevalence of the examina- 
tion system. There seem to be no positive equiva- 
lents in to-day's educational system for the strenu- 
ous drills, the classified outlines, and the specific 
definitions that were obtained in the old-time spell- 
ing-schools, lyceums, and formal tests that had 
such prominence a generation ago. It is certainly 
proper to return to the faith and the practice of 
the fathers where results are more effective. There 



80 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

is, then, a middle ground in the acceptance of 
the examination as a good instrument to secure 
thoroughness, to develop power of discussion, and 
to attain accuracy of statement and definiteness 
of conclusions. 

Their Nature. — The nature of the examinations 
that should be given depends entirely upon the 
subject examined, as there must be special adapta- 
bility to the needs and the possibilities of every 
department of study. Mathematics has different 
possibilities in this regard from history, reading, 
spelling, or geography, because it is a much more 
exact and limited subject of study and its plans of 
presentation and representation are much more 
given in the lessons taught. Language methods 
and plans of instruction should be such that a sort 
of examining system is continuously in employ- 
ment. No manuscript of any kind can be pre- 
pared, no oral discussion of any sort can be given, 
and no recitation can be conducted that is not 
more or less an examination in English. The 
teacher must take cognizance of errors, of short- 
comings, of lack of clearness, and of deficiency in 
view all the time, and require the correction of 
the same so as to develop a better usage. When 
examinations are to be given certain principles 
should be obeyed, as the questions selected must 
be adapted in form and in requirement to the age 



EXAMINATIONS 81 

and to the development of the pupils who take the 
test. The kind of query that is suitable for the 
eighth-grade pupil is not proper for the third- 
grade pupil even if the topic is somewhat similar. 
The pupil's qualifications in the subject, his use 
of language, his experience in answering questions, 
should all be given due attention when success is 
regarded as an important element to be sought. 

Their Aim. — The well-taught and well-trained 
pupils should always succeed in any proper ex- 
amination. Otherwise it shows a lack of reason- 
ableness as to difficulties, a condition that is a dis- 
credit to the teacher rather than to the pupils. 
School work should be planned for success rather 
than failure, and not to attain such a satisfactory 
state indicates that the teacher has not conducted 
affairs as was rightly expected. The aim of the 
teacher's examination of a class is to test the 
results that the teacher supposes the pupils have 
attained, in order to ascertain if the preparation 
has been complete. If not found to be so, a review 
is essential and more training must be secured be- 
fore the work can be satisfactory. While the ex- 
amination commonly brings out the pupil's weak- 
nesses, it actually exhibits the things in which the 
teacher's work is yet to be perfected. Study and 
school work are for the pupils' good rather than 
their harm, to strengthen them in their future ap- 



82 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

plication so that they are qualified to stand the 
tests that the world will later require of them in 
active life. When the examinations are oral, then 
the teaching should have prepared the way for 
them, and for the same reason written examina- 
tions demand a careful drill in that particular kind 
of preparation. 

Their Frequency. — There is naturally much va- 
riation in opinion as to the frequency of examina- 
tions. This is caused by the necessities being dif- 
ferent in branches of study and also in schools as 
organized. Language examinations are almost 
daily exercises. Good work in this line even ad- 
vises the "drop" examination in order to ascertain 
the scholastic status at any time. History and 
geography do not require any such attention as 
does language, as pupils may forget much that 
they have learned of these branches and not be 
much the worse for it. School work is often com- 
bined so that the important and the unimportant, 
the material and the immaterial, are confused. 
So far as training in language is concerned, the 
proper usage or the correct style must be secured 
in every way possible. In most subjects a monthly 
investigation through a test may be sufficient, but 
there are always some subjects which need atten- 
tion and exaction two or three times more fre- 
quently. 



EXAMINATIONS 83 

Their Purpose. — The three principal objects of 
having the examinations are as follows : 

1. To test the complete apprehension of the pu- 
pils as to the exact details of particular lessons, 
in order to try specifically the knowledge of the 
pupils on the subject matter that is essential and 
important in after progress and development. 
This class of examinations needs to be quite fre- 
quent, as they are an attempt to bring a review into 
the minds of the pupils through a conscious re- 
consideration of what is decidedly worth remem- 
bering for all time. This conscious reconsidera- 
tion of valuable knowledge is of more importance 
than the primary vigorous mastery of it. 

2. To test the pupils' power to make practi- 
cal application of the knowledge they have been 
taught. This kind of examination is a sort of 
original investigation, because it requires the pu- 
pils to use what they know in constructing new 
combinations of their knowledge. This method 
has great educational value in that it leads pupils 
to turn what they have learned into practical ends. 
It is also a similar test to that end in all kinds of 
business, as it brings out the ingenuity of the in- 
dividual as well as his skill in thinking out applica- 
tions. To get the full benefits that are rightly to 
be expected, great honesty must be shown by the 
pupils in actually presenting their own individual 



84 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

work. It is the original quality that here must 
be recognized and none other should be accepted 
as complying with the standard of excellence pre- 
scribed. 

' 3. To test the qualifications and acquirements of 
pupils to so complete a subject as to be entitled to 
advancement to a higher grade of study. This 
kind of examination is usually prepared by the 
superintendent or some outside person. It should 
be a general examination, presenting moderate dif- 
ficulties, and should be of such a character that 
cramming or short-time preparation will not suf- 
fice. Such an examination should follow a general 
review conducted by the teacher and should con- 
sist of such questions and topics as well-prepared 
pupils ought to consider reasonable and appropri- 
ate. The pupil who is ready for such a test should 
not be able to criticise either the form, the object, 
or the scope of the questions propounded, because 
he should be impressed with their adaptation to 
his present state of education. 

Patience. — The need for great patience and for 
great deliberateness in conducting, as well as in 
taking, examinations must be recognized. Exam- 
inations have their difficulties for the teacher as 
well as for the pupils. They may be either wisely 
or unwisely organized and conducted; they may 
be useful or useless; they may be helpful or help- 



EXAMINATIONS 85 

less — all depending upon the wisdom employed 
by those authorized to prepare questions, to read 
answers, or to determine grades. The history 
of human effort shows that it takes a great deal 
of wisdom to prudently handle such an agency 
in educational endeavor. Patience and persever- 
ance have here their true place of service. The 
examiner and the examined both need the sym- 
pathy of the other, as either is at a disadvan- 
tage. The practical and the useful should be 
constantly remembered and emphasized, while 
sensible action and reasonable acceptance are 
continually essential. 



XIII 

STUDY 

Lessons. — The proper assignment of the lessons 
that are to be prepared by study is an important 
function that the teacher may perform in so care- 
less and so indifferent a manner that the pupils 
are not given a fair chance to make a good pres- 
entation of themselves at the recitation that fol- 
lows. It ought to be recognized that good recita- 
tions can be insured by good preparation and in 
no other way. The mastery of the use of text- 
books and the capability in obtaining a compre- 
hension of the lessons assigned depend largely 
upon the teacher's prudence, intelligence, and good 
sense. It is essential that this part of the work 
be so conducted as to make the pupil's success a 
positive certainty. Direction, guidance, and sym- 
pathy are essential factors in a successful study 
hour. Anybody can assign pages or topics or 
chapters for preparation, but it takes a teacher of 
the best quality to assign the right quantity, to 
point out the real difficulties that will be met, and 
to adapt the requirements of study to the capa- 
bilities of a particular class of pupils. That such 

86 



STUDY 87 

requirements should always be reasonable, possi- 
ble, and certain of accomplishment is the proper 
basis for definite results. 

Mistakes. — It is a common mistake to assume 
that there is large benefit in attempting to study 
whether the pupil does or does not succeed in at- 
taining the preparation needed. It is equally an 
error to assume that pupils can be expected to pre- 
pare effectively a lesson just because it is credita- 
bly presented by a text-book and the subject mat- 
ter has been definitely assigned by the teacher. 
Neither is it true that text-books are easily read, 
or that the thought they convey is easily compre- 
hended. Experience proves that every kind of 
text-book, every new science, every new line of in- 
formation, every new thought, in order to be com- 
prehended by the average public-school pupil, 
needs interpretation, explanation, and illustration. 
A good text-book is a discussion of the subject 
matter of a branch in a brief form, and this gen- 
erally needs much elaboration to be adapted to 
the experience and the present knowledge of the 
pupils. Much information that is said to be pub- 
lished because it is in print in the form of a book 
is not really published, so far as the men and women 
of the world are concerned. This is largely true 
because it is a very difficult task to get the in- 
formation contained from the words given by the 



88 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

book. It becomes necessary, therefore, for a 
teacher to prepare the way fully so that the pupils 
may use the book efficiently in the required prep- 
aration of the lessons. 

A Test. — Geography text-books are always dif- 
ficult for pupils because of the vocabulary that 
an author must use. Even at the best, the lan- 
guage employed is not a part of the common peo- 
ple's vocabularies, and the pupils find themselves 
struggling to secure the thoughts to be acquired 
that are so securely hidden in a style of language 
that is not at all familiar to them. This accounts, 
in part, for much of the unsatisfactory preparation 
that pupils show in such a subject. A little story 
of an actual case may concretely show the truth 
of this statement. A little girl was assigned a 
brief lesson in a descriptive work on geography 
concerning certain facts about the peoples and the 
productions of Asia. Her teacher knew that her 
work had been uniformly unsatisfactory, and at- 
tributed the failures to lack of diligent study. To 
overcome this apparent defect the teacher told the 
pupil that she must thoroughly prepare the lesson 
assignment for the day, or she would be severely 
punished for the delinquency. This promise of 
discipline greatly worried the pupil, because she 
felt her inability to do what was asked. Endeav- 
oring to be more than fair, the teacher excused 



STUDY 89 

the little girl from the school-room and allowed her 
to go into the school-yard under a beautiful shade- 
tree to prepare this lesson. It happened that 
the superintendent came by the little pupil and 
stopped to inquire regarding her work. Learning 
the situation, he took the text-book and carefully 
read very slowly the few paragraphs that consti- 
tuted the lesson. As he went along he stopped at 
the more difficult words and asked their meaning. 
Of course the little girl could not give proper an- 
swers, because many of these words were outside 
of her vocabulary. He then told her what the 
words meant in simpler language, and gave liberal 
and generous interpretations to the sentences that 
were being studied. He then had the pupil read 
the lesson to him and make explanations as she 
proceeded. He followed this by asking her to 
recite the short lesson to him without the book 
in hand. This systematic plan succeeded. It is 
needless to say that the pupil made a successful 
presentation of her study the following recitation 
hour. This work did not take more than a quar- 
ter of an hour, and yet the pupil had fully mas- 
tered a difficult lesson that would have been 
impossible if left to her own ingenuity and appli- 
cation. 

Open-Book Lessons. — The kind of instruction 
as to study that pupils must have requires much 



90 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

attention and thought on the part of teachers, 
because they must fit the needs of the individual 
classes. For this reason the best way is to study 
the text-books of special subjects in an open-book 
recitation, thus making sure of the pupils' under- 
standing the subject matter to be learned. By 
so doing a short time in preparation beyond the 
joint work done will be all that will be required 
to guarantee success with the subject. The text- 
book is never as important as the teacher, because 
explanation and interpretation of the thought and 
the acquiring of the strange vocabulary are the 
prominent parts in study. Attempting to master 
a book where the facts stated are not compre- 
hended is an impossible undertaking. Open-book 
recitations have the advantage of closed-book 
recitations in the sense that they are not a test 
of the memory of words and sentences, but are a 
test of the ability to translate the language of the 
text-book into the every-day language of the pupil. 
Another benefit gained is that the pupils are shown 
how the teacher studies and investigates the sub- 
ject, how he finds the unknown words in the dic- 
tionary, and how he interprets the sentences and 
classifies them by illustration. It is always a 
benefit to follow the thinking of others, recogniz- 
ing how conclusions and opinions are reached and 
how differences are adjusted. 



STUDY 91 

Values. — Mental development and intellectual 
progress depend largely upon the results that in- 
dividual efforts secure. It is for this reason that 
effective methods have special values. Sitting 
at a table, looking at a book steadfastly and ab- 
sorptively, is not certain evidence that progress in 
study is being secured. The form is not sufficient; 
the results are the actual things needed. The 
movements of activity may be a fiction or a farce, 
unless the pupil's mind is completely used and is 
possessed by realities that cannot be mistaken. 
The values of study depend upon its prosecution 
in a vigorous spirit, upon its being active and direct 
in its object, and upon its being so abundant in 
results and so notable in developing an increase of 
capability and strength that progress and growth 
in the pursuit of knowledge are shown in the char- 
acter and in the enlargement of life. 



XIV 

THE RECITATION 

Object. — The period of time allotted to any 
class for the consideration of a subject in any 
branch of study is called the recitation. The main 
object of such an assignment is to enable the 
teacher to investigate the preparation in the as- 
signed topics that the members of the class have 
made. In the public schools it is customary to 
have five such periods a week, one assignment be- 
ing given each school day. In the country school 
there are so many separate classes and so much 
reason to maintain a varied programme that it 
would be better if some of the branches, like writ- 
ing, drawing, language, hygiene, and general les- 
sons in literature and history, were assigned only 
two or three times a week, thus giving opportunity 
for many things to be done that are now generally 
omitted. Under the programme given in the 
chapter on management a school could have all 
the work there outlined for study and recitation, 
and not have any class recitation over three times 
a week, as the actual work in arithmetic, reading, 
geography, and other branches can go on by the 

92 



THE RECITATION 93 

daily oral and written work combined, so that the 
teacher gives more or less individual instruction 
each alternate day, and oral class recitation the 
other days, in the branches here mentioned. 

Value. — The custom of conducting recitations 
is so universal, and so strongly indorsed by teach- 
ers and superintendents, that its supreme value 
is very rarely questioned. It is well, then, to rec- 
ognize the fact that what is really wanted in 
school work is not necessarily formal class recita- 
tion so much as a definite opportunity for the 
pupils to have frequent conferences with the 
teacher. There are qualities in work where close 
supervision exists, and where much personal at- 
tention is given through individual instruction, 
that are better in the main than can be obtained by 
class recitations. The method of individual tutor- 
ing used by aristocratic families in directing the 
education of their children is probably the most 
certainly effective of all plans that are known. 
The method of instruction in small classes of not 
more than ten pupils that was used by the Jesuits 
was also notably successful, but it must be remem- 
bered that it depended to a degree upon the 
brighter pupils giving instruction to their slower 
class-mates. Every country school can well afford 
to adopt a system of class leaders wherein the 
better-informed pupils will be permitted to give 



94; THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

aid and instruction to other pupils in the school as 
assistants to the teacher. This plan existed in the 
schools organized under the Lancasteran system, 
where one head-teacher undertook to teach a thou- 
sand pupils through the help of class leaders previ- 
ously instructed. The extravagance of this claim 
was early recognized, and a reasonable reduction 
of pupils to a single teacher was made a necessity, 
but the importance of pupils learning from each 
other was never discredited. Every good-sized 
district school has a similar condition to meet, and 
in no way can results be more definitely guaranteed 
than by employing all the talent and all the scholar- 
ship of the pupils in instructing those who are their 
inferiors in experience and in knowledge. 

Economy. — Class organization is adopted as a 
system of approved instruction because such a 
combination of individuals, able to receive the 
identical lesson at the same time, is notably 
economical. It is not claimed by the well-in- 
formed that the method of class instruction is 
superior to that of individual instruction, but that 
excellent results can be obtained by using class 
instruction, provided the teacher is capable and 
efficient and the number of pupils to a class is not 
too large. Even in class instruction, every means 
is used to insure that each pupil can do all the 
work assigned the class, and that he comprehends 



THE RECITATION 95 

the points that are fundamental and important. 
It is also recognized that the pupils in a class ob- 
tain much benefit from hearing each other recite, 
from the different points of view presented, and 
from the criticisms, corrections, and supplementary 
instruction that the teacher gives while conduct- 
ing the recitation. A well-handled recitation also 
adds interest to the subject, compels additional 
investigation and inquiry, and leads to a constant 
conference between the pupils themselves regard- 
ing the facts and impressions they later ascertain 
from books and other sources. Economy is also 
largely dependent upon the careful instruction 
that the teacher gives regarding the next day's 
preparation, since much more is readily accom- 
plished when the pupils are well informed regard- 
ing the task assigned. 

Form. — There is no absolute, definite form of 
conducting a recitation that can be indorsed as 
the model for teachers to follow and that can be 
recommended to young teachers seeking to im- 
prove their school work. The best and the most 
successful way to-day may need much modifica- 
tion to-morrow, if it has equivalent success, as 
every day's undertaking must meet adequately the 
necessities in the class and in the subject that are 
experienced. Stereotyped lessons, however per- 
fect in design or in logic, are not sufficient to guar- 



96 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

antee success because freedom, spontaneity, and 
initiative on the part of the teacher are essential 
to power and to practical capability. Novelty 
is of recognized value, originality is a notable gift, 
while manner and information are forces that 
should be accepted as of great use. There is much 
liability of experienced teachers becoming formal 
and mechanical in the conduct of their work, so 
that their style is perfunctory and uninteresting, 
compelling them to depend upon drill and repeti- 
tion for obtaining the narrow results that after 
education will test. 

Meeting the Expectation. — Pupils are keen in 
their insight and easily reach conclusions regard- 
ing the things they may expect in the recitation 
from the mechanical teacher. To meet these pe- 
culiar conditions they make definite preparation, 
and thus suit the plans and methods of the manage- 
ment so perfectly as to be granted better records 
for class work than their actual merit deserves. By 
meeting the conditions imposed they impress the 
teacher with an ability, an interest, and an ap- 
plication that they do not possess. To overcome 
such exigencies teachers should break with the 
traditions, and avoid all plans and processes 
that are formal, so that the realities may be 
prominent and the vital and the personal may 
dominate. 



THE RECITATION 97 

Frauds. — There are subtleties that pupils prac- 
tise upon careless and pretentious teachers that 
are very cunning and very effective. Few teach- 
ers, however sincere and honest, are able to pro- 
tect the recitation hour from the tricks of the 
trade that deception gives and that ingenuity 
develops. It is thus that the actual assigned 
recitation is postponed by the pupils' asking for 
information on topics not related, or partially re- 
lated, to the subject assigned for the class hour. 
The success of such a plan to postpone the day of 
recitation depends very largely upon the impres- 
sion of interest that the pupils can convey, as well 
as the wish of the teacher to be courteous and to 
be considered well-informed on a broad range of 
subjects. Another way that is equally successful 
is for the pupils of the class to enter into a debate 
on certain questions that they bring forward in 
the lesson and thus exhaust the time in fruitless 
and often indeterminate discussion. In a similar 
way pupils can turn the recitation about by pro- 
pounding inquiries ingeniously and compel the 
teacher to do the reciting rather than themselves — 
thus reversing the plans and intentions of the 
teacher, whose main object was to examine the 
pupils as to their progress in knowledge and re- 
quire them to talk rather than to use the time in 
lecture or in explanation. 



98 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

The Plan. — It is well to recognize that a well- 
conducted recitation calls out all of the activities 
of the minds of the pupils through demonstration, 
illustration, statement, and application. Each 
one of these characteristics must appear in a well- 
digested plan for a lesson. An oral recitation as a 
statement of what the text-book says about any 
topic is not a satisfactory result, even if absolutely 
correct, unless the pupil can turn it over and illus- 
trate in his own language, completing it by demon- 
stration and application. A written recitation 
may be a great failure from the fact that its errors 
may not be designated and completely corrected, 
its statements may be lacking in essential fulness 
and completeness in understanding, or may be 
overdone and lengthy without either clearness and 
precision or comprehensiveness. For this reason 
a combination of the oral and the written methods 
is essential. The oral should be devoted to that 
part that would take a long time to prepare and is 
largely explanatory, while the written should be 
confined to that which demands exact statement 
and can be put into brief language, in order to en- 
able it to be well-retained in memory for future 
use. There should not be any uniform plan in 
calling upon the members of a class to recite. A 
class roll is proper for a record of attendance and 
of progress and of results, but it should never be 



THE RECITATION 99 

used in any definite order. When a class is small 
this problem may not arise, but when the class is 
large the individual pupils cannot be easily called 
upon daily, and hence they can be made to hope 
that they may systematically recite, and also 
systematically rest. In addition, the system of 
permitting volunteers as a plan of recitation to 
follow may lead also to equivalent abuses and 
to equally unsatisfactory results. 



XV 

THE COMMONER 

The Power. — The teacher is never independent 
of the control of the community he serves, because 
the people are his employers and consider him as 
a public servant. He is a part of the machinery 
of the school system that the people have provided, 
and is recognized as a necessary factor in the con- 
duct of the education that is required by civiliza- 
tion, but at the same time he is regulated rather 
than consulted, dominated rather than obeyed, 
and controlled rather than followed. This ex- 
plains the phases of the salary question, the lack 
of a long tenure of employment, and the causes 
that contribute to the popularity of the license 
system, as all of these are managed by the people 
through their lay representatives that have been 
elected or appointed. 

The Influence. — The teacher needs to rec- 
ognize this political situation and to protect him- 
self and his interests by cultivating the good-will 
and the hearty support of as many of the people as 
possible. Political management and expediency 

100 



THE COMMONER 101 

declare that the only way that the teacher can 
wield an influence is by being an actual commoner, 
so that he is always approachable and is thor- 
oughly appreciated and esteemed. To acquire 
the ability of being a good mixer in social and com- 
munal activities is helping his own interests, ad- 
vancing the cause of the school, and developing 
the efficiency of the masses. The wise teacher is 
one of the people in every sense, a sympathetic 
leader rather than an arbitrary dictator, a con- 
genial spirit as a creator and developer rather than 
as an egotist or an aristocrat. It is for this rea- 
son that personal acquaintance, friendly relations, 
helpful sympathy, and comprehension of others' 
feelings are of such great importance, since only by 
such relations can motives, ambitions, and en- 
deavors be properly understood and employed in 
actual service. 

The School. — There was a day when the school 
was known as a private institution, being the prop- 
erty of the teacher who managed and conducted 
it as any other private business. His prosperity 
depended upon the patronage he secured, and 
hence he conducted the work in accordance with 
the demand and the wish of those who intrusted 
to him the education of their children. Such a 
plan gave opportunities only to those who could 
afford to pay the rates and meet the other ex- 



102 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

penses, and hence a large number of children were 
deprived of the rudiments of an education. In 
due time the movement for universal education 
became so strong that laws were passed by the leg- 
islatures of the States authorizing the assuming of 
the entire control and expense of public education. 
This gave public ownership and also opened the 
opportunity for education to all without discrim- 
ination. In doing this the State assumed the 
right to decide the standards of knowledge that a 
teacher must possess, the limitation of the course 
of study that should be provided, and the kind and 
extent of the system that should be organized, 
since, by controlling the expenditures, all other 
things were included as a matter of course. To 
do the work prescribed, school boards were elected, 
teachers were employed, salaries were determined, 
and policies were announced. In the change that 
occurred the teacher became an employee of the 
State, selling his talent, his skill, and his experience 
for his remuneration, called a salary. This legal 
relationship required that a formal contract be 
made, that the time of employment be determined, 
and that the specifications of the service to be ren- 
dered should be explicit and complete. All these 
legal formalities located authority, distributed re- 
sponsibilities, and defined the province that both 
parties were to fulfil. 



THE COMMONER 103 

The Attitude. — By this organizing of communi- 
ties into school districts, with officers appointed 
to represent the attitude and intention of the peo- 
ple, the work of public education was inaugurated. 
By such agencies and endeavors society undertook 
to protect itself from the hindrances, the defects, 
and the evils of the age, deeming its institutions to 
be safer in the hands of those moderately educated 
than of those ignorant and illiterate. It was also 
assumed that this educational preparation for life 
which the school gave should shorten the time that 
an apprenticeship must take, thus benefiting civ- 
ilization byjnaking production earlier and larger 
in the lives and the services of the coming genera- 
tion. The aim at social betterment and at social 
uplift as well as at social regeneration that was 
thus undertaken gave to education a province 
that was higher in rank than most public under- 
takings because all of its efforts were invested in 
human beings rather than in material prosperity 
or in financial progress. This attitude toward the 
great things that were to be done through co- 
operation became the hope of national life and of a 
nobler civilization. 

Cultivating the Masses. — In a democracy the 
support of the masses is of the greatest importance 
to all who undertake a work for their betterment. 
There is no progress in which they do not have a 



104 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

part. There is no movement for amelioration 
that they must not approve. There is no en- 
largement of responsibilities or of prospects that 
they must not assume. The comprehending of 
this condition of affairs is notably important to 
those who are in public-school work, since it gives 
abundant reason why it is necessary to cultivate 
the masses, obtain their hearty sympathy and co- 
operation, and use their strength and help in every 
way that is possible. Effort must be put forth 
to increase the good-will, the approval and the 
commendation of every patron so that the sup- 
port given and the faith bestowed may be equiva- 
lent to every need. 

Fellowship. — Wherever fellowship has been es- 
tablished and comprehended the best discipline 
becomes a fact and the best application a reality. 
The wishes of the teacher, under such relations, 
become a law to the people, so that his requests 
are implicitly recognized as more powerful than 
commands in directing his pupils. It is then that 
the teacher's example counts for more than can be 
explained, while his power of control is magnified 
and manifested until his masterfulness becomes 
remarkable. This same influence shows itself in 
the gregarious situations that schools exhibit. 
Some pupils have unusual power over their asso- 
ciates and schoolmates. They constitute the 



THE COMMONER 105 

ringleaders in rebellions, controversies, and mis- 
chief-makings if they are on the wrong side, and 
they are the centre of all that is good and true if 
their tendencies are toward the right side. In such 
a case an individual pupil counts for much more 
than his own power, as he becomes the mouth- 
piece of public sentiment and the consensus of 
public action, bringing results that are cumulative 
in character and in effectiveness. He becomes the 
voice that must be heard and heeded, the eye, the 
ear, the thought-inventor, the will-expressor, of 
those who rely upon his guidance and his sugges- 
tions. 

The Vantage-Ground. — This situation becomes 
more prominent the greater the work is in scope 
and in capacity. It is sure and certain to estab- 
lish this social relation that through union gives 
strength and advances interests and success. The 
teacher must be identified in a subordinate way 
as a co-operator in everything that is good and 
true, as through this subordination he establishes 
his right and chance for recognized superiority in 
educational affairs. In no way can he win more 
certainly or definitely than in his willingness to 
work ardently and sincerely as a subordinate in 
the ranks in movements where others lead. By 
such an attitude he learns to know the effective 
people of the community and acquires the knowl- 



106 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

edge that is necessary for him to have in uniting 
the people in the right way to the accomplishing 
of the right thing for the services he is attempt- 
ing to render to society. 

Business. — Teaching and managing a school 
may be permitted to take a person entirely away 
from business ideas and business people. The 
strength of a business man lies in his social rela- 
tions. He must know many people and select 
them according to their value. It is possible for 
a teacher to neglect an acquaintance with business 
ideals, business methods, or business people, hav- 
ing all of his following, his friends, and his co-opera- 
tors among those who can be of no service to him 
in a real way. The teacher needs friends among 
those that are in the world of business, because it 
is these who are in reality determining the policies 
and the plans of the school by determining the 
possible expenditures. The distance between the 
sets in society is very great. In the world of 
artists, poets, and authors things are discussed and 
believed that would never enter into the mind of 
a business man. In the world of teachers and of 
schools there is a narrow sphere of interest that 
gives no idea of the delights, the freedom of the 
mind, and the breadth of view of other callings. 
The contempt that many professional persons feel 
for the capability of making money grows out of 



THE COMMONER 107 

the atmosphere of ideas in which they live. They 
rarely realize that success after all depends very 
largely upon comprehending business ideas and 
business management. The best teacher com- 
bines the professional and the business character- 
istics so that he may be at home with both the 
educator and the business man. This is particu- 
larly essential in an educational career, because 
business judgment and experience are parts of the 
work as much as are books, methods of instruction, 
and theories of training men and women for life. 



XVI 

THE YOUNG PEOPLE 

The Country. — There is no better place for a 
young person to live than in the country, because 
the general conditions are more favorable for a 
normal life. There is a constant complaint that 
the young people of to-day are not satisfied with 
the opportunities or the privileges they have in the 
country homes, and that they are constantly 
leaving them to live permanently in the cities and 
towns. They are said to be attracted by the noise, 
the bustle, the social advantages, and the apparent 
prosperity that they observe in these more crowded 
centres, and, in addition, they have the impres- 
sion that there is easier work and less sacrifice to 
secure an equivalent income in the city than in the 
country. While many of these things are more 
apparent than real, yet it is more or less true that 
the country life can make too much of drudgery 
and not enough of entertainment, too much of 
hardships and too little of the common pleasures. 
If the residents of the country were to pay as much 

proportionately for amusements, for entertain- 

108 



THE YOUNG PEOPLE 109 

ments, and for social advantages as is paid in the 
towns and cities, there would not be this dearth 
of interest and this lack of satisfaction that now is 
said to exist in such localities. 

The Better Way. — The country people are able 
to have more leisure than the city people, if they 
only will use what time they have. Their crops 
and their domestic animals do not stop growing 
when the farmer takes a day now and then for 
recreation, as his business can be so organized 
that such days may be frequent and no loss be 
suffered. Since these things are absolutely true, 
the better way is for every community to provide 
the means whereby the young people may have 
opportunity for entertainment, amusement, rec- 
reation, and social life in accordance with their 
interests and their demands. If the school plant 
has been provided, as already has been suggested, 
there is a place for the young people to come 
together to have social organizations and pleasures 
and to get away for a time from the humdrum and 
the hard work that are their daily experience. The 
acquiring of the ability to enjoy the right kind of 
amusements, entertainments, and social oppor- 
tunities is as much a part of right training as is 
studying in school or working on the farm. Dis- 
sipation always follows a let-up from labor, unless 
the person thus released from the strenuousness of 



110 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

occupation has some form of activity and recrea- 
tion to which he can turn when a holiday comes. 
Many men debauch themselves with the drinking 
of intoxicating liquors and other accompanying 
vices, because they have not learned to enjoy real 
pleasures. Whenever time hangs heavy on their 
hands they do not know how to occupy themselves 
in harmless ways, and hence turn to the harmful 
and the evil. A holiday becomes thereby a curse 
rather than a blessing to the multitudes, because 
they have not been taught the happiness and the 
enjoyment that can come from the true activities 
of recreation. The city and the town are thus a 
menace to the country youths unless they are pro- 
tected by a training that has taught them a better 
way. 

What Can Be. — Wise leadership indicates that 
every school centre should be so organized as to 
have a good, equipped playground that can be 
used by the young men and boys for lawn tennis, 
base-ball, foot-ball, basket-ball, track work, out- 
door gymnasium exercises, and other athletic 
activities. These recreative exercises are equally 
as good for the country boy and girl as for the 
town boy and girl, and opportunities should be 
provided for such privileges at public expense. 
The having of half-holidays to recognize this need 
of young people is only giving proper considera- 



THE YOUNG PEOPLE 111 

tion to the things that civilization and common- 
sense commend. Young people have by nature 
social, aesthetic, intellectual, athletic, and spirit- 
ual faculties that demand opportunity for exercise 
and for activity. Nature's demands must be met 
if they are to be brought to a knowledge of nor- 
mal culture and right development. At the same 
time, the day will never come when those things 
that are elevating, innocent, pure, beautiful, and 
true will not supply the personal demand better 
than the artificial, the wicked, or the vicious, if the 
former are actually provided by the public and 
are made attractive and useful. In the same way, 
the programmes that can be held during the winter 
evenings at the school building, the games that can 
be played in the gymnasium, and the picnics and 
dinners that may be held will all contribute to 
making the school the social centre that every 
community so positively needs. 

Organization Necessary. — Such extensions and 
expansions of public work for the benefit of the 
whole people are not able to take care of them- 
selves. They cannot be left to the spontaneity 
of the community. They should be organized and 
conducted by the people through the proper offi- 
cers, and reasonable expenditures then must be 
made on the grounds of necessity, just the same 
as is now made for highways, bridges, and schools. 



112 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

The provision to support this work is not so large 
that any community could not afford the under- 
taking, and the expenditures thus made would 
be the most helpful investments that the public 
could make, because they guarantee results that 
are essential and permanent. Play and recreation 
are so important and so beneficial that little if any 
argument should be necessary to secure the ac- 
ceptance of this plan of extending such opportuni- 
ties to those not in attendance upon the school. 
Such work should be systematic, it should be well 
managed, those who take it should submit to nec- 
essary regulations, and the good of all should be 
the main consideration. 

Clubs and Library. — Boys' and girls' clubs for 
agricultural and home economics work exist now 
in many school districts and townships. These or- 
ganizations could be much improved and strength- 
ened by having the school plant become the social 
civic centre for meetings, lectures, library work, and 
fairs. There is no question that all these things 
are beneficial and praiseworthy and that they need 
help and encouragement to reach a successful 
standard. In connection with this a community 
library, made up of publications to suit the needs 
of the young as well as the mature, would be of 
the largest service. Such a combination of effort 
and of endeavor will give greater results than 



THE YOUNG PEOPLE 113 

individual initiative could possibly produce, even 
if larger expenditure is made, since co-operation 
decreases the expense and enlarges the opportuni- 
ties for increased service for the public welfare. 



XVII 

SUPERVISION 

The Present. — To-day there is no real super- 
vision of country schools, although there is an at- 
tempted supervision provided under the name of 
the county superintendent. This officer is ex- 
pected to manage a large territory, and in addition 
to that take charge of a large number of other kinds 
of so-called educational work that are official busi- 
ness in their nature and therefore must receive 
first attention. As a consequence, real supervision 
of the schools receives but limited attention and 
the personal work of improvement of the teach- 
ers and of the schools is largely postponed until 
some future time. Despite these interferences the 
county superintendency has done much that has 
been a benefit to education. This has been se- 
cured by conducting teachers' institutes, by hold- 
ing educational meetings, and by arousing popular 
interest through organizing clubs and reading cir- 
cles. It has also prominently contributed to sys- 
tematizing the work and to improving the spirit 
of the service by addresses given to the people 
at public meetings, by circulars of information 

114 



SUPERVISION 115 

mailed to school officers and teachers, and by con- 
tributing in service to farmers' institutes and clubs, 
as opportunity offers. 

The Future. — But the country school of the 
future must receive a better and a more complete 
supervision than this has given, since visitation of 
schools should become a reality, the personal sup- 
port of the supervising officer should be direct 
rather than indirect, while the improvement in 
methods and management should be immediate 
and effective. No superintendent, however schol- 
arly, strong, or skilled, can efficiently supervise a 
territory as large as the average county and no in- 
dividual can succeed in real supervision that does 
not have authority with the appointing power so 
as to assist in deciding the employment of teachers 
and many other matters that demand the expert. 
The principal problem that the future must solve 
is the organizing of a system of supervision so that 
it has the power to prevent any but competent 
teachers from being permitted to take charge of 
the schools. To do this will mean that successful 
supervision should not undertake to direct and 
manage the schools of more than three or four 
townships of a county. Such a plan of organiza- 
tion would permit frequent supervisory visits and 
would enable such officer to know completely the 
strength or the weakness of the teachers employed, 



116 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

and would guarantee trustworthy advice in de- 
termining the annual appointment of teachers. 
These principals, or district superintendents, should 
devote part of their time to assisting and direct- 
ing the individual teachers in charge of the sepa- 
rate schools, and, in addition, to co-operating with 
the people to such an extent as to improve and de- 
velop the many activities that are recognized as 
so necessary to the life of a progressive and happy 
community. 

The Province of Such Supervision. — Under the 
process of selection that has gone on for many 
years the district school-teachers are almost en- 
tirely women. While this condition is due to 
economical reasons in part, yet it is also due to the 
fact that women have proved themselves to be well 
adapted to the public elementary school service, 
and the patrons rightly consider them to be pref- 
erable to men in such schools. However this may 
be, there is yet need for work in the schools in agri- 
culture, mechanic arts, and related lines that men 
are best qualified to give, as society is at present 
organized, and for that reason a limited time should 
be given in all these schools to the things that a 
man is better able to do to help in these directions. 
Under his inspection, advice, instruction, and su- 
pervision the work in agriculture could be admira- 
bly managed, the boys' special work on the home 



SUPERVISION 117 

farms could be investigated, recorded, and rec- 
ognized, and the experimental and testing work 
that should be conducted on the demonstration 
farm or garden belonging to the school could also 
be supervised and managed. At the same time 
he could inspect, direct, assist, and co-operate with 
the teacher in all the work done in the school, and 
thus bring about a unity of effort and a harmony 
of service that would be entirely lacking without 
such supervision. While women teachers can do 
the work in home economics and often in manual 
training, yet the advice and experience of the 
supervisor would be very valuable indeed. In 
addition, he should have a prominent part in all 
the special meetings that are held for the improve- 
ment of the community interests and of the school 
activities, as such service only needs testing to be 
realized and appreciated as a permanent produc- 
tive investment. 

The Ends of Supervision. — The district super- 
intendent will become a new factor in the upbuild- 
ing of the community, if he is appreciative of the 
greatness and the value of country life and coun- 
try opportunities. He will help largely in devel- 
oping a unity of spirit and a heartiness of action if 
he is possessed of the right qualifications and the 
progressive attitude. The ends of supervision are 
not so much the securing of certain standardiza- 



118 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

tions in the branches of study and in the scope of 
work undertaken as they are to arouse public 
sentiment, cultivate public interest, and secure 
public action on all matters that are the deciding 
questions in determining the object of education, 
the purpose of school work, and the training that 
a human life should have in this best of all envi- 
ronments. He is, therefore, one of the people and 
occupies a place of nearness in his leadership that 
could not be possible in a larger territory and with 
more complex functions of service. He is in reality 
the field agent in educational activities and has 
as much a province in serving the people in general 
as he has in serving the teachers and the pupils in 
particular. 

The Broadness of Educational Organization. — 
It is thus decided that education is a great under- 
taking, not a small undertaking; that the masses 
of the people have not yet had a vision of what is 
in store for them and for their children; that the 
things that have already been done are small in- 
deed as compared to what is going to be done. 
This nation has the resources to undertake these 
great functions of civilization and government, it 
has the people that can be brought to this high 
grade of success and enlightenment, it has oppor- 
tunities that are not trammelled by custom, law, 
or precedent, it has the time to accomplish what is 



SUPERVISION 119 

essential to a larger prosperity and a broader 
utility, and it has the disposition to surpass the 
past by the accomplishments of the future. To 
reach all these ideals means that experts must be 
secured to help the people to improve all the re- 
lations that are possible: education, occupation, 
industries, and conservation; and thus give the 
heritage that freedom and intelligence confer. 

The Expert in Civilization. — The expert is de- 
manded in every line of business, governmental 
undertaking, and special progress. It is to such as 
these that all must turn whenever improvement 
and progress are to be sought. It is thus that farm- 
ing, stock-raising, stock-judging, soil conserva- 
tion, soil reclamation, and all questions of modern 
agricultural life and improvement can make most 
development and most progress. The attempt to 
do without the expert is not only foolish but reck- 
less. The scholar must be the man that can do 
things as well as think things, and such a combina- 
tion is needed in the school-room as teacher, as well 
as in the field as promoting agent — the district 
supervisor of education and progress. This view 
of organization is not a fanciful one, but a prac- 
tical, sensible one. When the original country 
school was organized, and the old-fashioned school- 
house erected and equipped, the expenditures for 
building, maintenance, and teaching involved more 



120 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

expense pro rata on assessed valuation, and more 
sacrifice upon the people individually of that day, 
than all the improvements, enlargements, and 
developments contemplated by these recommenda- 
tions would cost the present generation. Let the 
people of to-day do as well as their fathers in pro- 
portion to their means and civilization, and country 
life will be a success in every respect. 



XVIII 
THE PLACE OF RECREATION 

The Unity. — Every normal human being de- 
mands recreation as a part of his experience. He 
may have had exercise and still have no recreation. 
There is need for work to be a part of human life. 
The same thing is true as regards rest. Equally 
true must recreation form a part of the experience 
of every individual and of every country com- 
munity. It is a fact that many country school dis- 
tricts are entirely lacking in the possession of a 
social centre — a place where the adults as well as 
the children can come together and enjoy a com- 
panionship that is essential as well as desirable. 
Play constitutes a proper factor in a child's life, 
if he is given a chance for full and free develop- 
ment. Work is no substitute for play, and parents 
and teachers who treat children as not needing 
opportunity for play are neither scientific nor 
sensible in their practice. The playground is an 
essential factor in educational progress and should 
have its proper assignment of time on the pro- 
gramme. That a human life is a unity should 
never be forgotten. That the mind consists of 

121 



122 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

many ways of operating, all of which should be 
given a chance, is true. That the social contact 
of teacher with pupil and pupil with pupil on the 
playground, and in the other social activities of 
the school, is of lasting benefit must not be over- 
looked. 

The Playground. — Play needs to be organized 
and classified as well as work. It has its place in a 
systematic training that should not be ignored. 
Ample privileges and complete facilities must be 
provided if a satisfactory education is to be 
granted. To learn games and to practise them 
to secure efficiency are of the largest importance, 
because an individual must acquire a good grade 
of skill really to enjoy the recreation that his nature 
truly needs. The small school, with its large yard 
as a playground, conducted by a teacher that 
successfully instructs in recreative exercises that 
develop agility and capability in the pupils, gives 
the right plan of education. The large school 
with limited playground, and with a lack of op- 
portunity for the social development of children, 
lacks real interest and is unable to offer more than 
a partial and incomplete education. The move- 
ment for municipal playgrounds in the greater 
cities is in response to nature's demand for a nor- 
mal development of the native powers of children. 
The government of children, their ability to stud}' 



THE PLACE OF RECREATION 123 

energetically, their capability in their intellectual 
activities, are greatly improved when the demands 
of their whole nature are fully met and the op- 
portunities that are essential are conferred. 

Value of Recreation. — Recreation is too fre- 
quently confused with dissipation and is too com- 
monly classified as an actual waste of time and 
strength. Games are also confused by some per- 
sons with gambling and moral ruin, because 
games of chance and of skill are used by perverted 
people as a basis of betting and gambling. Harm- 
less, innocent, beneficial recreative games do not 
deserve such ignominy because their province is 
sometimes abused by degraded and wicked per- 
sons. The American idea of exercise is that of 
walking a certain number of miles, of sawing so 
many cords of wood, of ploughing so many rows of 
corn, of taking a buggy or an auto ride of an hour, 
of working vigorously for a quarter of an hour a 
wall machine, the whole object being work and 
nothing more. The American idea of recreation 
is that of going on some railway trip for ten days, 
of taking an ocean voyage, of going fishing or 
hunting, of attending some so-called social func- 
tion — all on a theory that change of activity gives 
what is needed and the best way to dispose of it 
is to take large quantities at some time in the 
year when business is slack and regular work can 



124 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

be omitted. Proper recreation is a part of every 
day's programme, and the business and profes- 
sional worlds make a great mistake by violating 
nature's law. The labor world needs fewer hours 
of work and more hours of genuine healthy recrea- 
tion in order to serve fully and successfully the 
occupations that they follow. The reason that so 
many people dissipate by drunkenness and by 
wretchedness every holiday they have is because 
they have never acquired any skill in such recre- 
ations as are sane and healthful, and hence, when 
time is given to enjoy at their pleasure, they at 
once drift into the most degrading dissipations. 

Applied to Teaching. — The recreative side of 
class work should also be recognized and employed. 
The work can be so organized that it is highly en- 
joyable. The teacher should lead in the making 
of the learning and the reciting of lessons as full 
of the enjoyable as possible. There are kinds of 
harmless competition that are very enjoyable and 
entertaining, and these should be introduced into 
class work as normal and valuable. The conduct 
of a school does not need to be humdrum or dicta- 
torial to be a virtue-training agency. Such a plan 
has been too long adopted by many good teachers 
as the proper kind of discipline to maintain. As- 
ceticism is not in conformity to either American- 
ism or democratic conceptions of liberty, and it is 



THE PLACE OF RECREATION 125 

not the proper method to insure maturity or re- 
sponsibility. In all life and in all schools there is 
enough monotony and humdrum that must exist 
at the best, and there is thus no need to make 
them a practice as if they might produce virtue 
and capacity, while in reality they induce and 
compel contrary tendencies and possibilities. 

The Province Defined. — Education is not the 
isolation of a human being when it is rightly con- 
ducted. Its real province is to fit him to live hap- 
pily and blessedly with others. Education should 
make a person more human and more natural, not 
more conventional and more artificial. It is not 
removing one from life and common experience, 
because it is truly getting one ready for a broader 
sympathy and a wider efficiency. It is not to 
raise him to a higher caste of exclusiveness, but to 
prepare him for the largest adaptability as a com- 
moner. The school is the place where the teacher 
lives with the children, where he contributes daily 
to the social progress of the pupils in happiness 
and character, where he secures the kind of atti- 
tudes toward the things of civilization that the 
pupils normally believe and thus enables them to 
act the part of contributors to the social uplift. 
The deepest and most lasting enjoyments in life 
are not those of the appetites and the senses; 
they are not found in the frivolities and dissipations 



126 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of the age; they are not in the extravagances and 
the abuses of the physical nature; since they truly 
belong to the higher activities of the mind and the 
soul. Hence, the good school is an actual, living 
social centre where the work is so conducted that 
souls are born into the kingdom of light and pros- 
perity by recognizing the greatest possibilities that 
the world of happiness and of success can produce. 



XIX 

TAXATION AND THE STATE 

The Business Side. — The solving of the prob- 
lem of country schools is as much a business ques- 
tion as it is a professional question. The getting 
of both of these phases of activity into a practica- 
ble working condition is no simple matter. The 
leaving of the initiative to the local community 
gives no assurance of reasonable progress or of 
possible progress, because this plan divides a State 
into so many individual units that a great part of 
them can be indifferent to the important needs of 
the present day and decline to adopt a policy or 
a plan that guarantees efficiency. Hence, most 
States are beginning to recognize that there must 
be State initiative as well as local initiative and 
that the State should have a large part in conduct- 
ing a popular educational system. At the same 
time there must be enough local initiative and 
local management to insure local interest and local 
enthusiasm, because there is nothing so popular 
in success as that which is obtained by local en- 
deavor at local cost. 

The Part of the State. — The work of the State 
should be that of inducing investment, encourag- 

127 



128 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ing activity, urging greater efficiency, and demand- 
ing actual results such as are absolutely essential 
to progress and development. These can be easily 
secured when there is a distribution of State funds 
to the local communities according to accomplish- 
ment and endeavor rather than according to popu- 
lation or to area of territory. What the schools 
need is efficiency, and nothing less than that should 
be allowed to exist whenever State funds are ac- 
cepted and used in conducting the schools. Even 
the small amount of money now annually distrib- 
uted by most of the States, if it were bestowed for 
actual results, would produce much more good than 
the present system of distribution can secure. The 
State could contribute largely to the development 
of interest and improvement if it controlled the 
distribution of one-fourth or one-third of the in- 
come necessary to support efficient schools. This 
money could be raised by general taxation and 
then be allotted as subsidies for actual stand- 
ards of accomplishment. By so doing indepen- 
dence and local management could be induced 
to undertake enterprises of a kind which would 
be entirely neglected and unappreciated without 
financial co-operation. 

State Subsidy as a Plan. — This is not a new 
plan of support or of government. The State has 
tested it in many other fields than the country 



TAXATION AND THE STATE 129 

school, and in every case it has resulted in activity 
and in additional investment. State subsidy has 
been used to promote teachers' institutes, agricult- 
ural fairs, farmers' institutes, short-course farm- 
ers' schools, county agricultural secondary schools, 
high schools, grammar schools, and even teacher- 
training in high schools, and the results all show 
what would immediately happen if State funds 
were placed within reach of country school dis- 
tricts when certain reasonable conditions are fully 
met and certain definite improvements are shown 
to competent inspection. Payment on results has 
been used in other countries than the United 
States for the expanding and encouraging of ele- 
mentary education for the masses; payment on re- 
sults has been the system of normal-school teacher- 
training used in Pennsylvania for many years; and 
payment on results will be the most important 
factor in adjusting and deciding the country- 
school problems of the present age wherever it is 
thoroughly applied. 

Inspection. — The introduction of the system of 
a State subsidy for country schools will necessarily 
demand an enlargement of the work of inspection 
and supervision. These are necessary factors in 
seeking the right development of any educational 
system, and without them a State subsidy, how- 
ever liberal and generous, would not be productive 



130 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of certain results. This inspection should be both 
local and State, and there should be a helpful co- 
operation that would develop the right spirit and 
the right condition. Those counties that secured 
the results sought should receive a reward in in- 
creased pay for the inspectors and enlarged op- 
portunities for the work being done. Such an 
organization would require a State institute for 
inspectors and department supervisors that would 
be organized by the State superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction and that would include such work, 
lectures, and round-tables as would produce a 
positive efficiency that could be fully realized in 
the work to be done in the local districts. These 
inspectors and supervisors should be active fac- 
tors in the holding of institutes for the local teach- 
ers in order to develop a condition of harmony 
that would insure an approximation toward ex- 
cellence in knowledge and in management. 

The Teachers. — When the State has a part in 
the paying of the expenses of country-school edu- 
cation; when the system of inspection has become 
a business and a vocation; when educational en- 
deavor is a reality and a purpose, then the stand- 
ard that the teacher must reach can be defined 
and enforced. The capability and the scholar- 
ship of a teacher should be determined by going 
to a properly organized school and completing a 



TAXATION AND THE STATE 131 

reasonable course rather than by a meagre and 
limited examination such as is by law now a com- 
mon system of licensing persons to teach children 
and receive public money. Training, not exam- 
ining, should be the door to professional standing 
in all public service. Teachers will not be better 
qualified, they will not be better educated, they 
will not be better trained, until there is reason for 
their meeting an improved standard and until 
there is money to pay them for improved services. 
Then, the country-school teacher is a special teacher 
just as much as kindergartners, primary teachers, 
or language teachers are special teachers, and they 
should be valued for their specialization and for 
their adaptability and fitness to enter into country 
life and country ideals of nature and culture. They 
need much knowledge that is not possessed by 
city teachers, they need large ideas of their oppor- 
tunities that present-day possibilities do not allow, 
and they need an interest and a spirit that are pos- 
sible only where nature and man come into such 
close relations. The State, and the State alone, 
can do these things, can enforce these standards, 
and can compel obedience. 

The Local Field. — These organized activities are 
all commended and approved and advised because 
the local field must be reached, the local interest 
must be improved, and the local initiative must be 



132 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

called into the highest continuous activity. The 
supreme importance of this work, the grandeur 
of civilization's efforts, the conservation of the 
resources of the country, the enlargement of the 
possibilities of manhood and womanhood, the im- 
provement of the means of culture and wealth, 
the increasing of the usefulness and the helpfulness 
of money and property, the expanding of the 
chances for civilization — all depend upon honest 
management, organized efficiency, and capable 
training granted to the common people. Since 
these things are so absolutely true, it seems that 
some State subsidy system is the better way to 
produce early and definite results in country school 
systems. 



XX 

THE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 

The Test. — Educational work depends upon 
demonstration and experience for its acceptance 
by the masses. Whatever results can be seen and 
identified as specially beneficial to personal suc- 
cess or to individual and social progress, these 
results are enthusiastically approved and highly 
commended. The country schools are so near the 
masses, and are so definitely determined in their 
scope and character by the masses, that theories 
which call for expenditure and investment in order 
to prove their correctness are rarely given an op- 
portunity to be tested and investigated. This con- 
dition compels the masses to be conservative on all 
public problems that require money for their con- 
sideration and solution, and also causes them to 
be doubtful of and opposed to every proposition 
that has not been established by experience as 
wise, prudent, and economical. Then the masses 
secure their property and their money in such 
direct and arduous ways that they know exactly 
how much labor and sacrifice these accumula- 
tions have cost, and for that reason they are well 

133 



134 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

satisfied with public affairs as they are, provided 
they find their maintenance not financially burden- 
some. 

The Progress Made. — It is to be recognized that 
the country school of to-day is very similar in or- 
ganization, aim, and results to the schools that 
were originally opened by the pioneers of the sev- 
eral States. The school-houses, the school-yards, 
the teachers, and the course of instruction have not 
materially or personally changed in the past fifty 
years. The progress made in transportation, in 
mail facilities, in other kinds of communication, 
in financial matters, in municipal management and 
improvement, in highways, in secondary and higher 
education, and, in fact, in almost every line that 
can be suggested, has been very notable, but the 
country school is the same institution in this 
greatly enlarged environment as it was in the days 
of primitive society. This condition is not due to 
lack of supervision alone, but to lack of aim, to 
lack of comprehension of the problem, to inde- 
pendence of school districts, to notions of econ- 
omy, and to unappreciation of the money value 
of competent and scholarly teaching. 

Independence a Bar. — The original organization 
of school districts on the independent local plan 
has been a bar to any agitation for improvement 
and for reorganization because the local community 



THE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 135 

had rights that were necessary to recognize and to 
respect. It was rightly assumed by the people 
that it was for them to initiate such reforms and 
make such expenditures as they deemed necessary, 
it being the business of no other higher govern- 
ment to undertake to require reforms or improve- 
ments. The desire to keep expenditures at the 
minimum in the ambition to get ahead in the world 
by careful saving of the family and personal re- 
sources, the lack of communal information as to 
what was being done elsewhere in the cities and 
towns, developed a spirit of self-satisfaction and of 
willingness to let things alone, while the accumu- 
lation of wealth and the great prosperity of the 
country communities so satisfied the people that 
they did not feel the need for anything better and 
more satisfactory than they had. It was such 
conditions as these that produced an anomalous 
status as regards education, showing undertakings 
and activities that do not comparatively conform 
to the progress found on every hand concerning all 
other kinds of public enterprise. 

The State's Province. — Education is the one 
great undertaking that has been left to local in- 
terest and local initiation. It is of too great pub- 
lic concern, and it involves too many contingencies 
to the people of the State as a whole, to permit this 
independence of initiative, and this indifference to 



136 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the public good and to the rights of the children to 
continue as a part of the educational system. 
Hence the State must take a hand in fostering 
enterprise and producing conditions whereby it 
becomes the interest and the desire of the com- 
munities to bring educational endeavor up to the 
proper standard of excellence and perfection. To 
do this means that the State must initiate some 
system of co-operation and helpful supervision 
whereby there will be more local expenditure, 
higher educational ideals, and more positive prog- 
ress. This can be done by making the educational 
revenue have a State source, as well as a local 
school-district source, and requiring certain definite 
conditions of improvement in order that the com- 
munity may be granted the revenue derived from 
the State source. The development of the right 
spirit, the comprehending of the greatness of the 
undertaking, the necessity for notable talent in 
the teaching, the demand for better quality of in- 
struction for the children in school — all these, and 
even more, can be secured if the State becomes a 
real force in educational propaganda. 

The Minimum Standard. — Popular demand for 
teachers of any standard, without regard to edu- 
cational preparation and fitness, in order to supply 
these country schools with teachers authorized to 
receive public money for their services, has pro- 



THE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 137 

duced laws that permit the issuing of licenses 
to persons whose qualifications are too limited to 
give proper results. There can never be a better 
country school until there is actual provision for 
a truly competent and scholarly teacher as well 
as such supervision as will prevent any but the 
most effective from holding such positions of trust 
and honor. The State could put an end to this 
by enforcing a better standard wherever the State 
funds are granted as a subsidy and thus help these 
local communities to help themselves. 

Demonstration. — It is not to be expected that 
every school district would at once co-operate with 
the State in introducing the new plan. There 
would be doubts concerning the practicability and 
the success of the undertaking in many localities, 
and it would be necessary to show by actual demon- 
stration that a better course of study, a better 
teacher, and a better opportunity are worth the 
while. This situation requires that certain demon- 
stration schools be organized and maintained in 
each county, such localities being selected as are 
the most aggressive, the most enterprising, and 
the most ambitious for improvement in educa- 
tional endeavor. When the demonstration has 
been made, when the results are shown, when the 
masses are satisfied, then there will be a local will- 
ingness to undertake a higher standard and to 



138 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

have a more efficient school. There is still another 
problem that must be recognized. The number of 
teachers that are now prepared to undertake 
these greater things successfully is quite limited. 
Agriculture, home economics, and other modern 
studies can find a place in the schools only by an 
actual acceptance that has been secured by demon- 
stration and success. Without proper teachers, 
without right modifications of the course of study, 
without careful inspection and supervision, even 
the best scheme would fail of being proved as 
either beneficial or desirable. 



XXI 

CO-OPERATION 

The Weakness of Isolation. — The most difficult 
thing for country school districts to learn is the 
importance of the principle of co-operation. This 
is due to the fact that in almost all respects they 
are independent as a unit and have learned to de- 
pend upon themselves in everything that touches 
the life and the business of their people. The life 
of the farmer is equally isolated and independ- 
ent. He relies upon no one in particular as long as 
he remains out of debt. He is under obligation to 
no one for his prosperity, his success, or his effi- 
ciency. This very independence gives him a valu- 
able self-reliance that is worth much to his home, 
his vocation, and his career, but it also gives him 
a self-assurance in regard to public policies and 
public endeavors that is a weakness rather than 
strength and that may betray ignorance rather 
than intelligence. This self-assurance may lead 
him to think that he is more capable in conducting 
educational affairs than the expert, educated man, 
and that, in fact, such matters as carrying out 

139 



140 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

school plans can be readily and successfully accom- 
plished by laymen. It is extremely difficult for 
those in country life to realize their limitations or 
to recognize that there are disadvantages as well 
as advantages in an independent environment. 

The Results of Isolation. — There are other ev- 
idences of these limitations in the pity that a 
farmer usually feels for his city acquaintances and 
the contempt that he frequently has for their man- 
ner of life, their good clothing, and their manners. 
He commonly assumes that these things are evi- 
dences of affectation, stilted pride, or ignorant 
poverty rather than the genuine expression of 
culture or character-training. He speaks dispar- 
agingly of the grasping spirit shown in business 
life, of the sparseness of the food served on city 
tables at meals, and of the supreme appreciation 
that city people exhibit as regards town and city 
life and town and city customs. In all this he is 
in some respects right and in other respects wrong. 
He is wrong when he thinks that people who live 
in the city or town prefer the life they follow 
because of its ease, its short hours, its lack of 
sacrifices, and its clean occupations. He fails to 
recognize that men follow certain occupations 
because of their individual qualifications, their 
interest in certain kinds of activities, and their 
particular capability to do well the things they 



CO-OPERATION 141 

undertake to do. He is right when he thinks that 
such people do not know much about the problems 
and the responsibilities of farming, and may not 
be able to appreciate the intelligence demanded, 
the skill needed, or the wisdom expended, in 
leading a successful agricultural life. These mis- 
understandings are mutual, as both sides to the 
discussion have much to learn and much to realize 
before they fully recognize the privileges that an 
environment can confer. 

The Country and the Town. — There are native 
differences between the people of the country and 
of the town that have largely come from the in- 
fluences of environment. The life in the city or 
the town is made up of so many occupations, is 
composed of so many varied experiences, is de- 
veloped by so many relations of dependence, that 
co-operation and exchange of ideas and notions 
become a necessity. This very compulsory con- 
dition of co-operation gives a breadth of view and 
an expansion of interest that secures the con- 
ducting of public affairs on a broader scope and 
with a deeper purpose than would otherwise be 
done. It is not the carpenters alone that make 
the people of a town, nor the merchants alone, nor 
the manufacturers alone, nor the professional men 
alone. These and many other persons following 
diverse industries and occupations make up the 



142 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

life, the needs, and the wishes of the community. 
Hence government receives more attention and 
makes more expenditure in proportion to wealth 
in the city than in the country. Compare city 
street improvements with country road improve- 
ments, city lawns and parks with equivalent coun- 
try endeavors, city homes with country homes, and 
it will be found that mixed occupations produce 
more discrimination as to taste and as to stand- 
ards of public policy because of comparison and 
competition. For the same reason the schools of 
the cities and towns surpass those of the country. 
Their better school-houses, better equipment, bet- 
ter salaries to teachers, their sending their children 
to school more months in the year or more years 
in the course are not due to having more money, 
comparatively speaking, or more need of educa- 
tional training, but to having learned the principle 
of co-operation, and to applying it to the securing 
of aims and objects that could not otherwise be 
attained. Their lack of independence, their need 
to depend upon the help of others for their suc- 
cess, their desire to attract business and trade to 
build up their prosperity, their application to the 
working out of endeavors that indicate progress 
and improvement — are all consequences of the 
spirit of co-operation rather than of greater intel- 
ligence, efficiency, or capability. 



CO-OPERATION 143 

Educational Progress. — The country school is 
what it is because of its isolation and because it is 
patronized by people of one occupation alone and 
because these people do not feel seriously the need 
of a progress and of an improvement that they 
would plainly recognize if they were in daily con- 
tact with people of entirely different occupations 
and ideals. The country school will become what 
it is able to become in all its greatness and its 
usefulness whenever the theory of isolation is 
abandoned and a theory of co-operation is adopted. 
It can become even better than the city school 
when the country people fully realize that there 
is more reason for their life to be richer in intel- 
lectual and social opportunities than is the life of 
the dweller in the city or the town. Educational 
progress depends, therefore, more upon a change 
of attitude, upon a broadening of experience, and 
upon an enlargement of the prospects of the in- 
dividual rather than on legislation, supervision, 
or inspection. This truth is shown in the success 
of the boys and girls of the country who leave 
their environment, take advantage of an improved 
education and training, and enter upon activities 
that demand the highest judgment, the broadest 
scholarship, and the greatest strength. They do 
not stand second to those born in the city in polit- 
ical, professional, or business life, as their biogra- 



144 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

phies plainly show. This is largely due to their 
physique and to the intense training that they had 
upon the farm, to their capability as workers, and 
to their surplus energy. 

The Larger Unit. — This condition makes a larger 
unit than the local country school district an ab- 
solute essential, if co-operation is to have a fair 
chance in training and developing the model Amer- 
ican citizen. There must be a getting away from 
provincialism and from separateness of life and 
from isolated experience in training, if there is not 
finally to appear in America the peasant class and 
the patrician class — a country-bred man and a 
city-bred man — a condition of civilization that 
will repeat the experiences of the nations of Europe 
and of Asia. The larger this school unit can ser- 
viceable be, the more it will bring together the 
people of all occupations and all experiences; the 
greater the opportunity for the children of the 
country and of the city to sit together in the same 
school-room and meet in competition on the same 
playground, the more they will be able to measure 
capability and application; the broader and more 
general the knowledge obtained by the instruction 
in agriculture, the mechanical arts, and the gen- 
erally accepted course of study for all, the more 
will appreciation of manhood grow and the more 
valuable will be the education obtained. Only by 



CO-OPERATION 145 

enlargement of the unit of organization, so as to 
combine the efficiencies of town and country 
through all classes of workers in these great move- 
ments in civilization, can the higher educational 
results be realized. 

The Modern Slogan. — The key to all advance- 
ment in industry, in professional careers, in church, 
in state, and in school is expressed by the single 
word co-operation. The farmer needs to co-operate 
with men in other callings even to get to be a prom- 
inent and useful citizen himself; he needs to feel 
his dependence upon the handmaids of civiliza- 
tion, the church, the school, and government, in 
order to realize fully his own importance as a 
factor in progress and success; he must give time 
and money and energy to the work that has to be 
done for the common good, in order to have the 
full benefits of prosperity for himself and for his 
family; and, finally, he must recognize his place 
as a maker and developer of civilization's best aims 
and objects, recognizing that all these great things 
are absolutely impossible in this great country 
unless he makes his full contribution as a worker 
and as a citizen. 



XXII 

THE PROPER UNIT IN SCHOOL ORGANIZATION 

The Purposes. — What makes the proper unit in 
school organization depends upon the purpose the 
unit selected is to serve and not upon any other 
reason. There is a unit that is determined by the 
convenience of attendance, another unit that de- 
pends upon the sufficiency of financial support 
that can be guaranteed, another unit that implies 
that there can be sufficient patronage to guaran- 
tee economy of cost of maintenance, and, finally, 
another unit that is regulated by the need of effi- 
ciency of administration and supervision. All these 
elements in school organization need to be com- 
prehended and to be realized if the undertaking is 
to rank as a creditable success. 

Too many country schools have the unit of con- 
venience of attendance, but are entirely lacking in 
financial support, sufficient patronage, and ade- 
quate supervision. This is a condition that pre- 
vents efficiency and economy, and gives in return 
no adequate results for the investments made. 

The Officers. — The smaller and less important 
the country school district, the more its organiza- 

146 



THE PROPER UNIT IN ORGANIZATION 147 

tion is decided by the matter of convenience alone, 
the larger the number of officials that are required 
to conduct and organize these schools. Here is 
found a territory two or three miles square with 
three school directors, a secretary, and a treasurer 
to maintain the organization, select the one teacher, 
purchase the fuel and supplies for one room, keep 
up the repairs, buy the equipment, visit the school, 
maintain legal discipline, and pay the teacher for 
her services. Frequently there are more school 
officials than there are pupils in regular attendance, 
and there is more difficulty in getting the legal busi- 
ness properly transacted than is true in any other 
kind of public affairs. On the face of things this 
over-organization is ridiculous and useless, as it 
contributes nothing to the excellence of the schools 
and actually prevents the necessary work from be- 
ing done. This plan is popular because it gives 
so many electors an office and because it shows 
that local men are capable of conducting all the 
local business. 

The Taxing Unit. — Possibly from a scientific and 
economic point of view the taxing unit is the more 
important problem to be solved, as on this, after 
all, depend the real possibilities of success or fail- 
ure. Many present-day tax units are incapable 
or unwilling to raise enough money to make an 
efficient school an actual possibility. The country 



148 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

school is often doomed to helplessness, uselessness, 
and extravagance because the salary is too small 
to provide a competent teacher. No genuinely 
competent, self-respecting teacher can afford to 
accept employment at too low a rate of remunera- 
tion. To-day the small country school districts 
could have pronounced success if they were in- 
creased in size until there was a full number of 
pupils in each school for each teacher employed. 
Such a combination would take the total amount 
of money they now raise for support and give it 
to fewer teachers of better qualifications and ex- 
perience. In many respects the best taxing unit 
is the county, as such an area of territory would 
give adequate financial support for the mainte- 
nance of all the schools that the school popula- 
tion needs and at the same time do the work re- 
quired in a most economical way. 

The Supervising Unit. — Inspection, supervision, 
and expert management are absolutely essential 
in any work as complex and difficult as is public 
education. The value of expertness of direction is 
appreciated by every enterprise that has its activ- 
ities scattered and accomplished by many persons. 
Supervision is an actual necessity to a properly 
managed business, and without it there is waste, 
extravagance, disaster, and failure, since incompe- 
tence and disorganization will predominate where 



THE PROPER UNIT IN ORGANIZATION 149 

not avoided and prevented. Supervision of schools 
is impossible unless it includes a reasonable terri- 
tory and provides opportunity for frequent and 
sympathetic contact with pupils and teachers. The 
right supervising unit depends, therefore, upon the 
amount of work to be done, upon the number of 
teachers and pupils that are to be encouraged and 
assisted, upon the variety and kind of services and 
activities that are assigned. The more that is ex- 
pected, the more that is authorized, the more that 
is permitted, the smaller must be the mileage to 
be travelled and the number of schools to be su- 
pervised. The county unit in supervision is not 
a possibility, provided one superintendent is as- 
signed the task of assisting the teachers and im- 
proving the schools. The township unit is not 
large enough to give opportunity for the best per- 
sons to be appointed as superintendents. The 
only way to decide such a problem is to use good 
judgment and make these units conform to what 
judgment and reason dictate. 

The Community Unit. — What constitutes a 
proper community unit depends upon the privi- 
leges that exist in organization to bring a group 
of people together systematically and secure the 
right use of friendly co-operation. When this limit 
has been determined, then the patronage of a 
single elementary school is a known quantity and 



150 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

a school-house can be satisfactorily located to 
supply proper facilities for the great variety of 
community activities and needs. When public 
roads are improved and transportation is made 
easier and quicker, then the possible area of a com- 
munity unit expands. If walking is the form of 
transportation that must be used to assemble the 
pupils and the people, then the community is small 
indeed. When wagons and carriages become com- 
mon conveyances the boundaries of a community 
proportionately increase. When automobiles and 
conveyances of a more rapid kind become com- 
mon the community unit can be very large indeed. 
It must be recognized that the advent of the trol- 
ley-car and the automobile has changed decidedly 
the size of the community unit for large portions 
of the United States, and as a consequence their 
school problems are to be best solved on a similar 
scale of management and policy. 

The Fundamental Situation. — It is evident to 
any student of the country-school problem that 
its solution depends very largely upon coming to 
a sensible, business adjustment of the whole ques- 
tion of practicable and serviceable units for the 
various business relations that need to be con- 
ducted. There is no necessity for these units to 
be organized on a compromise basis by assum- 
ing that the best unit for all will be one in which 



THE PROPER UNIT IN ORGANIZATION 151 

the boundaries of the community unit, the super- 
vising unit, and the taxing unit must be one and 
the same. The work of levying taxes, of distrib- 
uting money for the support of the schools, of em- 
ploying teachers, and of directing the work in prog- 
ress does not need to be managed by an identical 
set of officials. In fact there are good reasons for 
thinking that it would be better and more certain 
as to efficiency if there were a division of labor and 
of authority in regard to these highly important 
transactions. In doing this the province of the 
teacher, of the superintendent, of the local board 
of directors, and of the officers of each unit pro- 
vided could be greatly enlarged and responsibility 
could be placed without any detriment to the 
tax-payers or to the schools. These functions of 
government are widely different; these factors in 
educational progress are decidedly prominent and 
important, while the working out of the relations 
of service and of endeavor will complete the re- 
quirements of the present age. Without this ap- 
propriate solution all is chaos, all is extravagance, 
and all is weakness and incapability. 



XXIII 

STANDARDIZATION 

The Sentiment. — There is no more dominant 
sentiment among present-day educators than that 
for the desirability and the possibility of the stand- 
ardization of schools. This has come from an at- 
tempt to determine the quality and the quantity 
of work to such an exact degree that educational 
endeavor may be so unified that a pupil may be 
able to pass from the lowest to the highest grade 
of public-school work in a systematic and satis- 
factory way without loss of time or effort. Defini- 
tions of everything connected with schools have 
been attempted, the scope of the application of the 
definitions has been prescribed, while the province 
and the purpose of education of all kinds have 
been designated and outlined. These notions are 
largely formal and sometimes inconsequential, yet 
they have been treated as fundamental and vital, 
being given attention far beyond any possible 
results that they can secure. The sentiment origi- 
nated in an attempt to fill in the gap that existed 
between the common public school and the col- 
lege. So long as the academy was the fitting school 

152 



STANDARDIZATION 153 

for the college, this kind of secondary school had 
its standards determined by the requirements of 
the college, but when the public secondary school 
was founded the public demand did not feel satis- 
fied with the fitting school as an end, and hence 
public secondary education became identified with 
many other aims and purposes and the problem 
of standardization became imperative. The ex- 
act kind of scholarship needed for college en- 
trance became the question of college faculties, 
and the exact limits of education to be given in 
the regular popular branches was approximately 
determined. 

The Lower Grades. — When the high school had 
been reasonably standardized according to the 
limits prescribed, it was found that it was still 
necessary to organize and determine the limits of 
the so-called grammar grades so that the high 
school could have properly prepared entrance pu- 
pils for the work assigned. Likewise the primary 
grades were classified and planned and organ- 
ized until they were also standardized and uni- 
fied by such systematic courses that a balanced 
education seemed unable to be avoided. This 
same scheme of planning courses of study has pre- 
vailed in the colleges, in the universities, and in 
the professional schools to such an extent that 
the very day, and even the very hour, of the in- 



154 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

struction in all varieties of school work has been 
determined and designated with special exactness. 
In some respects these conditions have been ac- 
cepted by custom and put into force. In other 
respects statutes have been passed by legislatures 
and a fixed status of systematic education has been 
decreed. 

The Country School. — Amid all this commotion 
of developing and determining systems, methods, 
and plans of conducting schools in towns and 
cities, as well as in colleges and universities, it 
has been impossible to standardize the country 
school. In these schools the teacher has been 
the authority that determined the course of study, 
that assigned the work to be prepared, that de- 
cided when the work had been completed, and 
even when a new study should be begun, or when 
any portion of it was so satisfactorily mastered as 
to permit the next kind of work to be undertaken. 
When the teacher did not properly manage the pro- 
motion and transfer the pupils from class to class 
as the parents deemed desirable or satisfactory, 
then the parents solved the problem by their own 
standards, purchased new books for the children, 
and decided that promotion had taken place. The 
impression might be obtained by the careless ob- 
server that this kind of school management was 
extremely faulty and that it could not make for 



STANDARDIZATION 155 

the real progress of the pupils, yet investigation 
will show that good judgment usually prevailed, 
that a prudent, conservative policy generally dom- 
inated the action, and that promotion and transfer 
were not the hidden indeterminate chaotic prob- 
lems that certain leaders in a community might 
think. 

The Teacher as a Force. — It is a prominent fact 
that the teacher in such a situation is a mighty 
force in a country school and that the capability 
and the efficiency possessed are able to bring more 
definite results in a short time than any of the 
highly organized and standardized systems can 
show. In the country school it is not necessary to 
wait for the semester time to come around to take 
a new step in the line of progress; it is not neces- 
sary to mark time and supplement work to pre- 
vent the arrival at a station of accomplishment 
before the calendar designates the time that the 
sun crosses the equator; it is not necessary to 
keep every subject of study so abreast with every 
other subject of study that the paper curriculum 
could be justified for its existence. The freedom 
of the teacher, the opportunity to do the best pos- 
sible all the time, the privilege of taking advan- 
tage of interest and enthusiasm and thus push 
forward to immediate success — these are the op- 
portunities of the country teacher that can make 



156 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

efficiency reasonably certain and success an actual 
realization. It is for such reasons as this that the 
teacher must be the main consideration, that his 
qualifications and spirit and adaptability must be 
given great weight, in order that the prospects of 
the country school may not be taken away by in- 
difference or neglect. Almost everything depends 
upon the resourcefulness of the teacher, upon the 
quality of his character, upon his appreciation of 
the children and of their future development, and 
upon the growth they must show through the in- 
struction and training they receive. 

The Other Side. — There is another side to this 
question that is highly important in an economical 
and business sense that must not be overlooked. 
It must be conceded that there is large necessity 
for a reasonable and considerate standardization 
of the country school. Some things that are useful 
and some things that are useless are found in 
instruction. These must be differentiated and 
the valuable conserved. There is no time that 
can be wisely given for the learning of any 
alleged knowledge that does not possess real and 
helpful value. Almost every study that is found 
in the country school is too much controlled by 
tradition and custom. Almost every one is loaded 
with information and work that could be omitted 
from the assignment made to pupils without 



STANDARDIZATION 157 

any loss to the pupil's efficiency or scholarship. 
Almost every one is lacking in modern applica- 
tions or definite practicality. All the essential 
elements of education should be standardized and 
systematized. The text-books should be reduced 
to the real and the practical; the useful and the 
developing should be permitted even when not 
found in the books that are in use, while the true 
and the necessary should dominate all management 
and all instruction. 

The Present Need. — That this standardization 
should be secured, and that it should be brought 
about by the most comprehensive minds of the 
present age, ought to be accepted as a fact. That 
such a right solution would be an untold blessing 
to every country school the wise and the intelli- 
gent already know. That it is no small problem to 
accomplish every intelligent individual who has 
thought about it recognizes. That the progress 
of this practical age awaits the solution of the 
greater problem, while its day of accomplishment 
is postponed for the easier and more attractive 
tasks of legislation and supervision, is a true condi- 
tion in every part of national and State adminis- 
tration of education as existing to-day. 

Much of this difficulty is due to mistaken con- 
ceptions of what education is doing and what edu- 
cation should undertake to do as held by the 



158 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

masses of the people. They commonly think of 
school work as having a special money value to its 
possessor rather than a special personal value to 
the individual success of him who gains it. They 
sacrifice for their children, under the impression 
that the knowledge thus obtained will count for 
much in the years to come and will insure them 
power, peace, and plenty. Even educators them- 
selves put trust in the years given to study rather 
than in the actual mental accomplishments ob- 
tained by study; they accept more the philosophy 
of complete training than they do the reality of 
complete training; they urge the competency of 
formal knowledge and formal discipline over and 
beyond the competency of useful knowledge and 
effective discipline. Too often they ridicule the 
idea of actual efficiency in personality and in char- 
acter, forgetting that it is the doing of things, the 
thinking of things, and the developing of things 
that has made progress actual and an improved 
civilization possible. Education to be genuine and 
complete in results should not be purely cultural 
and speculative, even if such a plan is com- 
mended by notable scholars, since it is equally 
essential that mankind be strong in the practical- 
ity and the adaptability which guarantees food, 
shelter and clothing to the human family. 



XXIV 

THE COURSE OF STUDY 

Fundamentals. — What should constitute the 
proper course of instruction and training for the 
growth and the development of a human life has 
been the great problem of all nations that have 
had a place in civilization. These fundamentals 
have had the greatest variation, have shown the 
most remarkable results, and have produced special 
conditions that indicate the importance of the 
problem to the twentieth century. Chinese edu- 
cation was noted for its narrow circle of ideas, for 
its perpetuation of fixed customs, for its encourage- 
ment of outward morality and ceremony, and for 
its opposition to progress and change of every 
kind. Hindoo education was noted for its aver- 
sion to physical exertion, for its ideal of physical 
happiness in eating, drinking, and sleeping, for its 
lack of a conception of a personal God, for its recog- 
nition of religion as a set of puerile observances, 
and for its limitation of development to the caste in 
which the individual was born. Hebraic education 
was noted for its nationality of type, for its reli- 
ance upon individual development as distinguished 

159 



160 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

from instruction, for its training of the disposition, 
the manners, and the habits through both thought 
and feeling, for its conception of the rights, duties, 
and obligations of the individual in his relation to 
society, and for its acceptance as real and personal 
of the one true God, Jehovah of Hosts. Egyptian 
education was noted for its superiority in practi- 
cality, for the utilitarian tendency of its culture, 
for its absorption and adoption of the kinds of 
knowledge and culture that were found in other 
nations, for its world-wide character, and for its 
attainment in the mechanic arts and agriculture. 
Greek education was noted for its admiration for 
the physical, the heroic, the artistic, and the 
aesthetic. It sought supremacy and leadership 
through philosophy, government, and war. It 
trained the intellect, inspired the personality, and 
developed the patriotism of the race, so that mu- 
tual improvement was secured through hearty 
friendship and profound scientific culture. Ro- 
man education was noted for intense practicality 
in training every youth for a definite calling, for 
success in agriculture, arms, politics, law, and 
oratory, and for ambition to accumulate wealth 
and to acquire power. The art of war was learned 
in the field; politics, law, and oratory were learned 
in the forum, courts, and senate; while eloquence 
was acquired by the most diligent effort and the 



THE COURSE OF STUDY 161 

most assiduous training. American education is 
noted for its scientific basis, for its experimental 
and investigating character, for its manifold types 
of undertaking, for its conception of the impor- 
tance of citizenship and efficiency, for its univer- 
sality and its philanthropic management, for its 
popularity and its accepted adequacy, and for its 
notion of harmonious development whereby the 
physical, mental, and moral character of the child 
should be fully developed. The interest in edu- 
cation that exists everywhere in the United States, 
the enthusiasm that is always manifest as regards 
its necessity and its great value, the investments 
that are made to have its benefits reach all of the 
people without regard to their financial standing 
or prospects, are manifestations of possibilities of 
progress that are marvellous indeed. 

The Country School. — With the conceptions of 
the fundamentals that are found in the motives 
and the purposes of modern elementary education, 
there can exist no negative status for the country 
school. It is an educational institution that is 
founded and organized and conducted to communi- 
cate the fundamental knowledge and the thorough 
training that this present age accepts as essential 
to the welfare of the race. It is a limited institu- 
tion, because it deals with the child during the im- 
mature and untrained time of its life and because 



162 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

even these years are few and difficult to use or 
to control on account of the many natural and 
unappreciated interferences that are constantly 
preventing results. The function of the country 
school is a broad one if its intentions are actually 
realized, but it commonly becomes a narrow one 
because of restricted environment, physical im- 
possibilities, and decided hindrances that business 
interests and vocational prejudices allow to exist. 
The reaching of complete ideals, the appreciating 
of the notable possibilities of culture and training, 
the true valuation of citizenship and business ca- 
pacity, the importance of industrial life to civiliza- 
tion, and the grandeur and efficiency of a well- 
trained character for all without distinction are 
conditions that are yet only partially realized in 
the country school's perfection and expansion. 

The Programme of Studies. — Custom has made 
a certain curriculum almost universal. There are 
good reasons for this common agreement since the 
programme of studies taught must conform to the 
fundamental knowledge that civilization decides is 
essential to the practical training of the individual. 
It is to be recognized that every kind of civiliza- 
tion has had its peculiarities and its special require- 
ments, and that the changes or improvements that 
have appeared in such civilization have been re- 
flected in the courses of study offered in the 



THE COURSE OF STUDY 163 

schools. Educational organization and manage- 
ment are always conformable to the standards, 
ideals, and ambitions of the times they serve. 
In the same way, the present-day course of study 
found in the American schools is a consequence of 
the real public needs that the masses who support 
and patronize the schools feel to be important. 
No branch of study can have any patronage un- 
less it is desired as knowledge by those who enroll 
in such schools, and hence the modifications that 
appear are only those that originate in public de- 
mand. The country school makes a special place 
on its programme of studies for certain branches 
of learning because of their universal acceptance 
by the masses. These are English language (read- 
ing, spelling, penmanship, literature, grammar, 
and composition), arithmetic, geography, history, 
physiology, hygiene, and vocal music. The only 
differences that exist concerning these studies as 
suitable for elementary education are included in 
such considerations as the scope, the time of as- 
signment, and the quantity and quality of subject 
matter that each should occupy. Some of them 
are given extraordinary prominence because of 
their popularity and the assumption that their in- 
formation guarantees special personal capability; 
some of them are denied the attention which their 
training deserves because they are so largely de- 



164 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

pendent upon the gifts and the qualities of the 
teacher, while others are simply given a place be- 
cause of their conventional and appreciated char- 
acter as training factors of a mental and practical 
kind. In addition to these fundamental lines of 
study, there is a growing tendency to increase the 
country-school programme by attempting to give 
practical elementary instruction in one or more of 
the following studies: agriculture, home econom- 
ics (sewing and cooking), manual training, physical 
training, drawing, and nature study (plants, ani- 
mals, and natural phenomena). 

The Main Problem. — The chief difficulty that 
arises in the work assigned the country school is 
that economic conditions seem to compel that 
persons be employed as teachers who can afford 
to accept the small incomes that are obtainable 
by the system as legally provided. The country 
school-teacher has a province that demands su- 
perior capability, competency, and efficiency in- 
stead of limited scholarship, narrow culture, and 
meagre experience. The branches of scholarship 
that are to be taught have special value. The 
knowledge they contain demands complete mas- 
tery. The training they give, if they are efficiently 
handled and studied, cannot be considered as an 
inadequate education. In these fundamental sub- 
jects are found the kinds of preparation that are 



THE COURSE OF STUDY 165 

essential to success in further progress in educa- 
tion, that give a practical basis for a business life, 
and that equip a person for creditable competency 
in other callings. 

The First in Importance. — The training in the 
use of the English language is the first result to 
be sought in the maintenance of a country school. 
This is no small undertaking for the pupil or for 
the teacher. The difficulties to be met are so nu- 
merous and so indeterminate that many times it 
is a question of judgment rather than a question 
of fact as to what should be done. This is caused 
by the condition in which a living language like 
English must be found. There is much that is in 
a transition state and that has changed from gen- 
eration to generation. English is not standardized 
as to spelling, as to pronunciation, as to diction, or 
as to application. The spelling that should always 
be preferred by the school is that form which is 
simplest and most nearly phonetic. Every diffi- 
culty that can be eliminated should be given such 
treatment without hesitation, because every ir- 
regularity should be rejected by the teacher as not 
contributing to success in the universal education 
of the masses. Then the pronunciation that is 
appropriate differs very greatly among even the 
well educated. This is due to the fact that there 
are many minor dialectic distinctions with special 



166 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

characteristics that exist in different parts of a 
country and sometimes even in different parts of 
the same State. The dictionary as an authority 
does not relieve this situation, because the vowel 
sounds are frequently quite differently pronounced 
by the experts when they are themselves from dif- 
ferent colleges or different States. The diction- 
aries are edited to give word precision for the 
standard of pronunciation. Since this is not the 
standard that is used in reading and speaking, the 
teacher is obliged to depend upon his own knowl- 
edge and training in determining sentence preci- 
sion — the style of language that is used in the 
schools. 

Formal English. — In like manner, English gram- 
mar is lacking in standardization. Every author 
of a text-book in grammar uses such a nomenclat- 
ure as he sees fit. This makes confusion as regards 
the technical terms describing the tenses, the cases, 
the parts of the sentence, and many other charac- 
teristics that make teaching English grammar spe- 
cially difficult. Then diction, the meaning of 
words, is so variable, so numerous in applications, 
and so different in usage that the interpretation 
of thought is a profoundly difficult undertaking 
for even the best informed and the more widely 
read. The distinction in literature, the novelties 
in prose and poetry, the many meanings that 



THE COURSE OF STUDY 167 

words can convey — all indicate that teaching the 
mother tongue with credit and with accuracy is 
not to be expected of the novice or the uninformed. 
Practical English. — Yet, after all, the element- 
ary school must stand or fall on its ability to teach 
its pupils to be ready, accurate users of the mother 
tongue. On this depends all the success that is 
to be secured in teaching most of the other branches 
in the elementary curriculum, as text-books are to 
be studied, verbal instruction is to be given, and 
written exercises are to be prepared to comply 
with the methods that must be used in conducting 
a modern school. Writing English does not pre- 
cede the acquirement of readily and successfully 
using oral English. Talking, reading, committing 
selections to memory, reciting, and other forms of 
expression are preliminary to composition. The 
obtaining of information, the making of observa- 
tions, the comprehending of how to say things 
properly, the competency in talking, reading, recit- 
ing, and discussing are absolutely essential to a 
reasonable beginning in writing English. Before 
written composition should be undertaken as a 
task, oral composition should have been specially 
developed. The themes that are to be treated by 
description should be very completely and thor- 
oughly developed and expressed in oral form before 
any success should be expected in the written form. 



168 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

This oral composition must be given extraordinary 
attention. Pupils must be trained to present their 
thoughts in a consecutive, deliberate, perfected 
oral composition, in order to be trained in effective 
thinking and in readiness of use of the right words 
in the right relations to have any personal fitness 
to undertake successful written composition. 

Rhetoric. — English grammar is for the benefit 
of the critical instinct as to the proper use of words 
in right relationships; English rhetoric is likewise 
a kind of study that gives a critical basis for cor- 
rection and improvement of composition. Neither 
grammar nor rhetoric, however well mastered, will 
make a pupil a ready talker or writer. This fact 
emphasizes the necessity for great emphasis upon 
the realities of English instruction, and places the 
main requirement as to education and literacy 
upon the proper and efficient teaching of the Eng- 
lish language. When this is really done, then geog- 
raphy, history, physiology, and all other informa- 
tion studies become a joy and a success in school 
work because the mastery of the language gives 
opportunity to make real progress. 

Mathematics. — Arithmetic has a province in ele- 
mentary education and training that is all its own. 
It calls for different mental activity from that re- 
quired by language, and in its higher and problem 
forms trains the judgment and the reason. It has 



THE COURSE OF STUDY 169 

also a language of its own, as it carries the means 
of expressing thinking and is universal in its char- 
acter, being capable of being taught through all 
the leading languages of the age. It is a science in 
that it is governed by law and order and is bound 
together by principles and intimate relations that 
give much breadth and depth to thought and en- 
able conclusions to be reached that are definite 
and accurate. It is valuable in its concrete as 
well as its abstract form, and develops powers of 
comparison, of investigation, and of coming to 
conclusions that mathematical studies alone pos- 
sess. In the more primary phases of this subject, 
perception, observation, and memory together are 
able to master the work that is given. This is rec- 
ognized in the learning of the more simple forms 
of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and divi- 
sion. Many of these exercises are the learning of 
a mathematical language and consist of the com- 
mitting of tables and combinations of numbers so 
that the repetition of these may be made almost 
automatically in after use. It is thus with the 
multiplication table, with elementary fractions 
and factoring, with the fundamentals of compound 
numbers, and the minor applications of decimals. 
Memory exercises, mechanical operations, and 
concrete examples are appropriate for the educa- 
tion of a child before judgment, reason, or even 



170 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

conceptual power are shown by mental develop- 
ment in more than the most rudimentary form. 
The mechanical operations of arithmetic are at- 
tractive to pupils in the primary grades. They 
like the graphic representation, the forms of cal- 
culation, and the accuracy of the results, and they 
acquire the foundations for higher work with ra- 
pidity and with perfection that show their hearty 
appreciation of its usefulness. By making proper 
selections of work that are given in arithmetical 
text-books, the processes of calculation as taught 
in the fundamental rules, in fractions, in compound 
numbers, and other parts of the book where proc- 
esses are the important thing to be mastered, 
rapid and satisfactory progress can be made even 
when the age and the mental development of the 
pupils would not enable tasks to be performed 
where judgment and reasoning must be a large 
factor. 

The Higher Types. — Judgment and reason are 
mental powers that require time to appear and to 
mature. They constitute thinking involving such 
abstract relations that they belong to the mature 
mind, not to the child mind. They are not de- 
pendent on good teaching, on correct methods, 
or on systematic instruction. They cannot be 
manufactured by effort or by training, as they 
are phenomena of human development that ex- 



THE COURSE OF STUDY 171 

pand and show capability when the proper age 
has been reached. When this kind of maturity 
has come, judgment and reason assert themselves, 
thinking becomes the preferred process of action, 
and problems of all kinds are desirable exercises 
to give these faculties a chance for service. Even 
if the primary child withdraws from school with- 
out having learned more than the processes and 
systems of calculations taught by arithmetic, he 
is better off in later years when his higher mental 
faculties appear than if his teachers had required 
him to study his arithmetic in the order commonly 
given by the text-books where processes of calcu- 
lations and problems to be solved follow each 
other in regular order for each division of the sub- 
ject. 

Other Studies. — Information studies, such as 
geography, history, and physiology, are compara- 
tively easy to master, if the teacher has ample 
knowledge of them and the pupils have enough 
acquaintance with English to understand the 
printed page. The teacher's acquaintance with 
these subjects of the course of study should be 
extensive and thorough. It should depend on 
many sources, and include many more phases of 
the topics considered than the text-book could give. 
In no way can a teacher's influence be more 
strengthened than by the additional interesting 



172 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

information that the supplementing of the text- 
book permits. These informational subjects are 
valuable because of the outlook they give, because 
they are preliminary to a life study of more ad- 
vanced lines, and because they give breadth of 
view to every one who pursues them in a success- 
ful school. 



XXV 

THE TEACHER SUPPLY 

Quantity. — The present system of organizing 
country schools provides twice as many school dis- 
tricts as are needed to successfully care for the 
children that are enrolled in the schools. This fact 
alone demands a teacher supply that is impossible 
to provide, since the salaries are too small to give 
support to a capable teacher and the work to be 
done is too little to occupy the time or the energy 
of an ambitious teacher. If business methods were 
adopted, the actual number of schools organized 
would depend upon the actual number of pupils 
that would enroll and upon the actual amount of 
work that the schools require to be done. Every 
good teacher wants to have a good-sized school, 
every good school must contain enough pupils to 
give interest and enthusiasm to the work, and every 
satisfactory management puts schools upon a busi- 
ness basis and insists upon true economy. Any 
other method of conducting public affairs is con- 
trary to an honest public policy. 

Quality. — Good business judgment also requires 
that schools should be conducted to obtain quality 

173 



174 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of work as well as quantity of work. Expenditures 
for educational endeavor should be wisely made, 
because if such undertakings are not successful, 
then the expenditures are actual waste and not 
investment. The law of supply and demand should 
apply to such business enterprises, and if there is 
no demand there should be no supply. Despite 
these principles of business, country schools are 
often furnished by law and by the plans of the 
system where there is no real demand. Money 
is spent that is in the treasury, more to get it ex- 
pended than to bring any real returns for it. Such 
methods of management make quality of scholar- 
ship and training unnecessary in the teacher, and 
also make impossible any superior quality of in- 
struction and training for the pupils. Such ad- 
ministration of government violates the principles 
of respectable management, even if it does not 
violate the law that is on the statute books. For 
these reasons there is an inordinate demand for 
a large supply of teachers of meagre qualifications, 
in order to provide for weak and poorly managed 
school districts where the greatest effort is em- 
ployed in spending the money of the people rather 
than in devoting it to securing valuable returns 
for such expenditure. 

The Better Teacher. — The kind of teacher that 
is positively needed in a country school is one that 



THE TEACHER SUPPLY 175 

is thoroughly conversant with country occupa- 
tions, country opportunities, and country life. The 
work that is being done by the people requires the 
best mental qualifications in the workers to secure 
success. The homes need an intellectual atmos- 
phere to inspire the children to the right valua- 
tion of the school. All things being equal, the 
country-born, the country-bred person that is lib- 
erally educated and thoroughly trained will ac- 
complish the most for the people in general and 
the pupils in particular. The notion that certain 
kinds of scholastic education without regard to 
these other things is all that is necessary to pre- 
pare a person to be a competent country teacher 
is a positive mistake. There are more things neces- 
sary to make a competent teacher than the knowl- 
edge of certain elementary and secondary branches. 
Plans of Training. — It is evident that some or- 
ganized effort must be adopted to educate and 
train country teachers, if the needed supply for 
even a well-organized and economical system is to 
be maintained. As long as the way into the voca- 
tion is through some examining system, the real 
difficulties will not be met, as the examining sys- 
tem will be kept at such a low standard that a 
supply of efficient teachers will not be obtained. 
As long as the way is through graduating from a 
regular high-school course, with certain elementary 



176 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

and didactic studies to count for preparation, the 
supply is not sought in the right place, because 
high schools as now patronized will prepare city 
residents for teaching and they will leave the coun- 
try and go to the city as rapidly as the slightest 
opportunity offers, even for less salary and for less 
appreciation of their services than they might be 
granted in the country. It is rare, indeed, that 
the city-bred will find it possible to adapt them- 
selves to country life, since they are attracted to 
a kind of life and society that the country does 
not possess. 

Country Teachers' Courses. — If the high schools 
opened classes for the subjects of study that are 
required for country teaching and would instruct 
such persons in such subjects in an intensive and 
thorough manner and add such other branches as 
would specially prepare country people for this 
work, it seems reasonable to suppose that a bet- 
ter satisfied and a more keenly appreciated class 
of workers in country schools could be provided. 
They 1 would have certain necessary knowledge from 
experience, they would recognize the importance 
of this knowledge, and they would return to these 
schools with interest and with enthusiasm and be 
satisfied to devote themselves arduously to this 
kind of work if they were granted a suitable income 
for a permanency. A high-school education in it- 



THE TEACHER SUPPLY 177 

self is in reality no effective preparation for suc- 
cessful teaching. The fact that many high-school 
graduates have developed into strong teachers has 
been due to learning the business in the school of 
experience and through diligent application rather 
than through the influence of the high-school 
studies that they have pursued. 

Training. — It is common usage that gives a loose 
meaning to the word training when referring to the 
preparation of teachers for their work. By train- 
ing most educational writers and speakers mean 
formal instruction in school management, in his- 
tory of education, in methods of teaching, and in 
mind study. This kind of instruction is beneficial 
to the practical preparation of a teacher. It may 
be all that is possible in these days to be done, but 
yet it is not deserving of being classified as real 
training in any sense of the word. Real training 
should mean actual practice in teaching under 
critical, sympathetic, developing supervision where 
the school is organized for laboratory purposes 
and where the teacher in training does the work 
of instruction. He should be constructively criti- 
cised and personally directed, so that growth in 
efficiency, in power, and in freedom of management 
are positively recognized and secured. The Eng- 
lish method of requiring those who wish to be 
licensed as teachers to actually work under the 



178 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

direction of a teacher of first-grade qualifications 
until they have acquired a mastery of themselves 
and of the mechanism of the conduct of the school 
and feel at home at the business is a reasonably 
good solution of the country-school problem of 
training. These pupil-teachers are thus trained 
in method, in management, and in self-mastery 
until they have acquired experience that assures 
them of reasonable success when they assume 
charge of a school themselves. At least this much 
practical contact should be had from the teach- 
er's stand-point before the entire responsibility of 
independent service should be permitted. 

The Experienced Teacher. — This giving the bet- 
ter and more experienced country school-teachers 
an enlarged province in the educational system 
should give them superior rank, a somewhat 
larger salary, and a more decisive encouragement 
to grow in efficiency and in personal power as 
trainers of others. They would be recognized as 
superior in knowledge, in capability, in manage- 
ment, and in efficiency in adapting themselves to 
the special interests, the notable characteristics 
and the enlarged possibilities of community life. 
This use of their experience and of their success 
would develop a class of country teachers that 
would be encouraged to acquire much more than 
ordinary scholarship and training; they would be- 



THE TEACHER SUPPLY 179 

come graduates of good schools, and they would 
make a study of social conditions and of means of 
betterment that the ordinary regular service as- 
signed to the single teacher would not give. This 
employment of the superior teachers to manage 
model or demonstration schools would be an eco- 
nomic way to reach a much-needed result in a prac- 
tical and possible way. 

The Training Schools. — The organizing of sev- 
eral normal schools in a State cannot solve the 
problem beyond that of giving instruction in the 
branches of scholastic and professional knowledge 
needed. Actual training in country-school work 
must be in the country school districts and must 
be in charge of these expert teachers who have 
been carefully prepared and trained for their work. 
There would need to be as many such training or 
demonstration schools as the necessities of keep- 
ing up the supply required, and the training work 
should follow the scholastic study that such pro- 
spective teachers should have. The high schools 
are so numerous that they could easily establish a 
proper course of study to give the instruction side 
of this preparation. They could become little 
normal schools in reality for this laudable purpose, 
and they would secure a patronage from the coun- 
try people that would rapidly furnish the supply of 
students needed for the course in training that 



180 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

should be given in the demonstration schools. This 
plan is feasible; it is easily organized and financed. 
State subsidy could test the plan very easily, and 
the corps of teachers found in the country schools 
would be remarkably improved without any loss 
of time or waste of effort. 

The Institute. — This plan of teacher training 
and supply would enable the organization of a 
county institute for the expert-demonstration 
school-teachers and a township, or more local, in- 
stitute for the other teachers. The expert that is 
in charge of the demonstration training school 
could conduct these local institutes and local teach- 
ers' meetings. She could conduct a teachers' read- 
ing circle where the continued study of the teach- 
ers could be guided, improved, and encouraged. 
She could develop such activities in the schools 
within local reach of this centre as would build up 
public sentiment, secure public co-operation, bring 
about better equipment and larger interest in the 
possibilities to be attained. Under this condition, 
district supervision would be effective, county 
supervision would be a masterly occupation, and 
educational enterprise and activity would be mar- 
vellously enlarged and conserved. 



XXVI 

AGRICULTURE 

School Expansion. — The primitive elementary 
school was organized to assist the home to give 
the rudiments of literacy to the children of a com- 
munity. For that reason reading, spelling, pen- 
manship, letter-writing, and arithmetic constituted 
the assigned curriculum. It was never supposed 
that the function of the school included the teach- 
ing of occupations, as it was inferred that all such 
kinds of knowledge and training belonged ostensi- 
bly to the home. As a matter of course, this orig- 
inal conception of what a school might do was 
modified by experience and by development, since 
teachers gradually taught other branches of study, 
and the people also began to ask for other things 
that they considered the school best organized to 
give. By an evolutionary process lines of study 
and teaching were added until the function of the 
school became the teaching of everything that 
could be classified as suitable for the education of 
boys and girls for intellectual, moral, and practical 
life. The several States have organized systems 
of elementary education, provided laws governing 

181 



182 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the management of such systems, designated offi- 
cers to conduct such systems, authorized money to 
be raised to pay the expenses from the public treas- 
ury, and decided standards of courses of instruc- 
tion and of qualifications of teachers. To-day the 
quantity of subject matter that can be taught is 
so excessive that no elementary school can have 
the time to satisfactorily accomplish all that is 
permitted or demanded. Hence the question of 
elimination has become prominent, the absolutely 
essential is to be preserved, the extraneous and the 
unimportant is to be dropped, and room in the 
school course is to be found for the most desirable, 
the most useful, and the most important. 

Vocational Notions. — This expansion of the 
school has not been confined to the speculative 
studies alone, but it has also come in the adoption 
of the vocational studies as at least of secondary 
importance to the fundamental studies universally 
accepted. This problem in the city and in the 
town has been a very complex and profoundly diffi- 
cult one, because the occupations of the people 
are so varied. The preparing of a curriculum and 
of an equipment to handle the trade-school educa- 
tion for a city community involves great expense. 
In the multiplicity of things that can be done to 
develop mechanical skill, the selection of the act- 
ually important is very much more intricate than 



AGRICULTURE 183 

the layman might think. Then education of a 
real, substantial, mental character is wanted as a 
positive result even more than the practical teach- 
ing of vocations if the school is to fulfil its real 
function in society. The popular attitude toward 
these problems is more likely to judge results by 
the skill shown in occupational lines than it is to 
conclude that the work accomplished is to be com- 
mended if well-trained, well-informed minds are 
shown by the pupils. Manual training is an at- 
tempt to make vocational activities educational 
rather than to give a vocational bias to the pu- 
pils. It is planned to give the eye, the hand, and 
the muscular system of the pupils such training as 
to develop in them possibilities that would other- 
wise be neglected. Manual training does not sat- 
isfy the vocational ideal of education, for it does 
not produce expert mechanics or well-equipped 
workmen of any kind, and does not reach the end 
of preparing pupils for occupations that they could 
follow as a life career. Hence it is being rejected 
in many quarters as not meeting the public demand 
for complete education and vocational or trade 
schools are taking its place in the school system. 
Agriculture. — The country schools are the most 
favored in regard to vocational education because 
the patrons of these schools are all producers of one 
general kind and are all interested in farming and 



184 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

farm life. There is, then, not the confusion nor 
the complexity that exists in the towns and cities, 
because the people are more homogeneous in occu- 
pation, more able to unite in a single conception of 
accomplishment, more harmonious in thought as 
to their undertakings as a community, and more 
competent through daily experience to recognize 
the full value of the results and developments that 
the vocational work of the school exhibits. These 
conditions magnify the necessity of the teacher's 
having abundant qualifications in scientific agri- 
culture and demonstration work. He must have 
more in reality than the empirical knowledge that 
is possessed by the boys and the girls he will teach, 
and he must be more widely informed in science, 
art, literature, and mathematics than the men and 
women of the community he may officially serve. 
The province of the teacher must command the re- 
spect and the esteem of the people because of dis- 
tinct accomplishments, or else the work being done 
is not valued and the place of leadership attained. 
The Province of the Study. — Agriculture is a 
study that is both a science and an art. It demands 
of those who follow it both studentship to learn the 
complex science and skill in applying the art to 
the obtaining of results. It relies upon the soil, 
the air, the weather, the seasons, and the climate 
as natural forces to permit results to be accom- 



AGRICULTURE 185 

plished, and yet it masters untoward conditions 
that may be found in any of these through the 
wisdom, the learning, and the ingenuity of man, 
and compels results that science, skill, and experi- 
ence have made possible. This requires a knowl- 
edge of the special quality of soils, an ability to 
determine their constituents, a capability in im- 
proving them, and an experience in cultivating 
them that are fundamental to decided success in 
farming. This does not consist of ordinary knowl- 
edge such as common men could acquire without 
special education and training, and yet it is just 
the kind of knowledge that agriculturists should 
learn and that they can be taught if they have a 
properly equipped school with suitable laboratory 
for such investigation accompanied with a dem- 
onstration garden or farm where such soil experi- 
ments can be exhibited for the benefit of all. 

Plant Life. — Agricultural study also includes a 
knowledge of the various plants that are cultivated 
on the farm with such discriminations as show the 
quality of each plant and the highest standard of 
its production. This includes the problems of 
seed, of planting, of cultivating, of harvesting, and 
of marketing, showing what is profitable, what is 
superior in type, what utility it shows in service, 
and what ways can be used to increase quantity 
and quality. In this way the teacher and the com- 



186 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

munity can co-operate to spread the most practical 
information regarding wheat, corn, oats, barley, 
rye, vegetables, grasses, and other productions 
that are common in the section where the school 
is located. Accompanying such instruction as can 
be given to the children of the school, the young 
people that are outside of the school, and the older 
people who will co-operate to advance the common 
interests, since the tests can be regularly made in 
the demonstration garden, the undertaking will 
have double value to all who participate in the im- 
provement of the community. 

Accompanying these things can be a study of the 
different plants that grow naturally upon the soil 
and that are a hindrance to proper agricultural 
success. These weeds can be studied and classi- 
fied, their extermination taught, their methods of 
distribution determined, and their prevention as- 
certained. Undesirable weeds that are likely to 
be introduced into the farms and that should be 
known and recognized on their first appearance 
deserve special attention and consideration. 

Animal Life. — In a similar way the animals and 
the animal products should be studied and the 
better standards determined. This can be done 
by making use of the live-stock that belongs in 
the community and that is of the best and high- 
est grade for production, for farm use, and for 



AGRICULTURE 187 

the market, so that stock-breeding, stock-raising, 
stock-judging, and stock improvement could re- 
ceive the attention and the determination that 
their value to the community deserve. Along 
with this is the poultry yard and its products, 
including all the things that should be known 
about housing, feeding, care, and improvement of 
the variety of fowls that are profitably produced 
on the farm. 

Other Agencies for Interest. — All such informa- 
tion must have illustration, demonstration, and 
interpretation to be of practical value, and must 
be carried to the home and have hearty co-opera- 
tion there in order to be as effective and as influ- 
ential as its merits deserve. Many of the things 
done and taught culminate in a district fair, in 
which prizes may be given, premiums may be 
awarded, competition may be encouraged, between 
pupils of the same age, between families and pa- 
trons, and between the community and other com- 
munities. Preparation for this fair could be made 
the entire year, and the homes and the school could 
well unite to interest the children in what is profit- 
able, practicable, and specially successful. It is 
very remarkable what progress can be made, what 
a fund of knowledge can be acquired, what prac- 
tical common-sense can be developed, and what 
an interest in study and in the characteristics of 



188 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

superior farming can be provoked. To reach these 
desirable ends the different organizations that can 
be perfected in the community should co-operate, 
a continuous intellectual atmosphere should be 
provided, and the welfare, happiness, and educa- 
tion of all should be secured. 

The Profit of These Phases. — Education is not a 
preparation for living sometime in the future. It 
is real living for every child now. Success is not 
some future experience that an individual must 
wait years to enjoy; it is a thing that can be a part 
of a child's realization every year. Work is not 
drudgery or unpleasant when it is accompanied by 
conditions that arouse the interest, improve the 
zeal, inspire the enthusiasm, and train the power 
of realization. The conventional education con- 
ferred by the country school must be so related 
and combined with country life that the impor- 
tance of both may be recognized and their use- 
fulness as co-operating factors appreciated. When 
these truths are mastered, when their application 
is secured, when the developments of progress are 
adopted, then civilization has come to its own and 
the producing classes will have received their full 
heritage in the worlds of activity and happiness. 



XXVII 

HAPPINESS 

The Chief End. — Whatever result may be ob- 
tained by human effort, whatever undertaking may 
be planned by human wisdom, whatever object 
may be sought by human experiment and human 
inquiry, whatever purpose may be fundamental to 
human sacrifice, whatever success may be secured 
by human achievement, yet happiness of body, of 
mind, and of spirit is the chief end of all human 
attainment. If everything else that man can de- 
sire is possessed, if every ambition is realized, and 
every comfort gained, yet without happiness all is 
in vain and all is lost. Education of every kind 
and degree is hopeless and helpless so far as hu- 
man satisfaction, human peace, and human recog- 
nition is concerned, unless happiness is real, con- 
stant, and active. To reach this stage is the work 
of the home, of the school, of the church, and of 
all civilization. It is an indirect attainment, and 
yet it is the supreme attainment. It is a conse- 
quence of having kept the laws of health and hy- 
giene so far as the physical well-being is concerned; 
it is a result of having obeyed the laws of mental 

189 



190 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

development and mental training so far as intel- 
lectual well-being is concerned; it is an effect of 
having established righteousness of life, charita- 
bleness of attitude, and holiness of disposition so 
far as spiritual well-being is concerned. 

The Doctrine of Equality. — Human personalities 
are not equal in any respect. It is not necessary 
that they should be equal. In fact, there are many 
reasons why equality would not contribute to the 
welfare of any one, either in prosperity, success, 
or happiness. Inequality in personal strength, in 
personal talent, in personal tendencies, and in per- 
sonal acquirements and capability is a blessing to 
the world and to the aims and objects of civiliza- 
tion. A man is not more of a man of parts or a 
man of usefulness because he has the special gift 
of acquiring wealth, or of acquiring scholarship, 
or of acquiring the skill of an artist, or of display- 
ing power as an organizer or as a statesman. This 
condition of variability of talent found among 
men permits every one to make a valuable con- 
tribution to society for the benefit of others and 
thus raise the total accomplishments of civiliza- 
tion far beyond what would be at all possible for 
equality to give. This making a contribution to 
the common good is the duty and the privilege of 
every individual human being. This recognition 
of a constant personal debt to society that should 



HAPPINESS 191 

be honorably and fairly paid with pleasure and 
with sincerity is the key to the solution of most of 
the conflicts and evil tendencies of civilization. 
Let every one use his talent for the benefit of 
others, and his own happiness and success are as- 
sured. 

The Doctrine of a Fair Chance. — Education of 
every kind is dependent upon the doctrine of a 
fair chance for its proper development and expan- 
sion. Men will always follow diverse occupations 
and represent different activities in society. These 
occupations are all great opportunities if they are 
carried out to their ultimate conclusions. No ser- 
viceable occupation that is essential to the prog- 
ress, the maintenance, or the improvement of the 
race should be considered as unworthy of human 
effort. Hence education is not alone for the cler- 
gyman, the physician, the lawyer, the architect, 
the engineer, or the school-teacher; it has just 
as much a place in the enlightening and training 
of the farmer, the mechanic, the merchant, and the 
employee of the railway. It is true that these dif- 
ferent callings in life are different in their gifts, in 
their output, and in their skill. The problem of 
education includes the giving to each individual 
the opportunity to make the best of himself in 
every way possible, and it is therefore reasonable 
and right that schools should be maintained for 



192 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the education and the training of all for the high- 
est station of efficiency in living. It is an error to 
suppose that the comparison as to the superiority 
of one work of skill over another is a correct 
method of measuring the degree of capability of 
individual efforts. Painting a picture is neither 
equal nor unequal to inventing an engine. The 
carving of a marble statue is neither equal nor 
unequal to the building of a cathedral. Practis- 
ing law is neither equal nor unequal to manufact- 
uring. Developing an important work in engi- 
neering is neither equal nor unequal to making 
necessary and proper laws in the halls of legisla- 
tion. Merchandising is neither equal nor unequal 
to farming. What can be truthfully said that is 
not complimentary to the accomplishments, the 
recognitions, and the values involved in every 
honorable calling that civilization has developed ? 
The problem of inquiry as to what are fair chances 
for boys and girls must be solved by the boys and 
girls themselves, relying upon their talents, their 
tastes, and their capabilities as guides. The com- 
mon idea that all that a man needs is a special 
kind of education to make his career a great suc- 
cess in that direction is a fallacious one, if it is as- 
sumed to believe that any person could wisely 
take such a course in determining his vocation in 
any special direction that ambition might dictate. 



HAPPINESS 193 

Neither is it to be understood that there is only 
one special vocation for every person and that if 
he does not discover that particular specialty his 
failure is certain. The differences to be found in 
individuals are not so special as might be inferred, 
for talents are more general and more universal 
than such a theory would assert. It is probable 
that most persons could devote themselves to any 
one of a dozen callings and obtain creditable re- 
sults. The staying by the selected calling until it 
is carried to extraordinary development and suc- 
cess is the main thing. 

Selfishness. — The greatest source of unhappi- 
ness is sordid selfishness. It brings an untoward 
condition to the most prominent success, because 
it robs the soul of the spiritual adjustments of 
generosity, of charity, and of helpfulness that are 
so essential to an individual's self-development. 
The man who attains wealth and uses it in an ex- 
tremely selfish and limited way, as though it be- 
longed to him and not to society, is miserable, in- 
deed, because he cannot know what happiness is 
except as his ideal is gratification of appetite, dis- 
sipation, or gloating over the earthly accumula- 
tions he has made for a temporary purpose. The 
man who has attained great distinction in profes- 
sional, civic, or national life, and who uses this 
temporary promotion and power for his own grat- 



194 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ification and prosperity, regardless of the needs of 
civilization and of the higher and nobler life of 
society, is a certain candidate for profound depths 
of unhappiness, because he will gather a harvest 
of regrets and of abandonment of peace through 
inheriting the ingratitude of his fellow-men and 
the ultimate repudiation of his claims for great- 
ness. 

The man who would reach success in any voca- 
tion, and through that success be respected and 
esteemed by his fellow-men, must become also a 
great and useful factor in the higher lines of civil- 
ization's endeavors; he must contribute personally 
to every end that helps the moral and spiritual 
betterment of society, and he must have an im- 
portant part in the amelioration of the ills of man- 
kind. He must co-operate to the end that pov- 
erty and sickness and suffering and wickedness 
may be eliminated, and that prosperity and health 
and comfort and righteousness may be enthroned. 
There is enough money, there is enough humanity, 
there is enough helpfulness, there is enough love, 
there is enough patriotism in the world, that are 
wasted, undeveloped, unused, or unappreciated, 
which, if put into the service of mankind, would 
make the present day almost a millennium. If 
only the surplus of these things were properly 
used, there would be a marvellous revolution in 



HAPPINESS 195 

the aims, the purposes, and the possibilities of 
society. 

Personal Character. — Education cannot stop 
with the material things of life nor with the scholar- 
ship and learning that the worlds of intellectuality 
have produced, nor with the humanitarian theories 
and philosophies of civilization, as its final and 
complete aim is spirituality of personal character. 
Life is not alone of the body, nor of the body and 
mind, but of the body, mind, and spirit. It is 
comparatively easy to attain the materialistic qual- 
ities and successes of this prosperous, remarkable 
world, compared to the attainments in intellect- 
ual qualities and successes that may be secured by 
application, industry, and sacrifice. But all of 
these are petty compared with the attainment of 
spirituality of personal character. Education and 
development in the physical realm of humanity 
can be accomplished in the limited period assigned 
by nature to the body to grow and to develop. 
Education and development in the intellectual 
realm can be accomplished in the limited years as- 
signed by nature to childhood and youth and early 
manhood. Education and development in the 
spiritual personal realm have no limits but those 
of years of life, of diligent endeavor in the ac- 
complishing of good for others, and in actual sac- 
rifices that mean the betterment of mankind. It 



196 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

does matter what personal physical habits an in- 
dividual may acquire; it does matter what per- 
sonal standards of scholarly usefulness and help- 
fulness to others he may adopt for his line of ac- 
tion; it does matter what relationships of personal 
morality and spirituality of character he may ac- 
cept as the crowning act of his motive for co-op- 
eration with God and with man, because on these 
things will depend what education, as given in the 
home, in the school, in the church, and in society, 
can accomplish in the making of a man. 



XXVIII 

CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS 

The Price of Land. — Happiness among country 
people is dependent upon the success of the work 
of the farmer. Agricultural prosperity is essen- 
tial to put the people in the right spirit to make 
liberal appropriations of money for the support of 
the schools. Education needs capital and energy 
to secure progress. The conditions in country 
life are not entirely favorable for progress and the 
remedies for these hindrances are not easy to in- 
vent or to apply. In many parts of the United 
States the price of land has increased so rapidly 
in the past twenty-five years that the land-owners 
have become capitalists. Their wealth has multi- 
plied many times through these frequent ad- 
vances in price, and speculation in land has been 
very active. This change in the price of land has 
modified the problems of production of crops and 
has had the effect of making much farming un- 
profitable, considering the capital that is invested 
in the land. The land-owning farmer has become 
wealthy because of this unearned increment, and 
at the same time has found his occupation unpro- 

197 



198 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ductive in returns, while the tenant farmer has 
been induced to neglect the proper care of the 
soils as his financial interests insist that he seek 
temporary rather than permanent benefit. 

The High Price of Living.-^-The large price paid 
for land in making an investment, the desire to 
make this investment profitable by obtaining fair 
returns, the decline in the productiveness of the 
soils through cultivation of crops, the shortage 
of the crops from year to year in quantity and 
quality, and the expansion in the population to be 
supported have contributed collectively to the 
increase of the price for farm products and have 
made the support of governmental, social, edu- 
cational, and family expenses a positively increas- 
ing burden. The country community has ex- 
perienced the larger proportion of these financial 
difficulties, and as a consequence the problems of 
social, moral, and educational improvement have 
been gradually enlarged and complicated until 
they have become the more important questions 
of the present time. Even with this advancing 
price for farm products of all kinds the country 
community has not been progressive and enter- 
prising because so-called "hard times" have been 
the regular experience of the people. In addition 
to this, the shortage of trained farm employees, 
the advance in the wages that even the untrained 



CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS 199 

can obtain, and the purchase of expensive neces- 
sary farm machinery, have added many factors 
to the conditions that have made farm life un- 
favorable. 

Speculation in Land. — The limitations in the 
total acreage of tillable land, the large amount of 
capital seeking productive investment, the profits 
that have been realized in the rise of the price of 
land, all have contributed to induce capitalists 
to buy land for business purposes. Experience 
has shown that their expectations of large profits 
have been fully realized. All these elements have 
added to the difficulties surrounding the country 
school and have had a part in preventing either 
its normal standardization as an institution or its 
proper improvement as an agency for the culture 
and the capability of the people. The systems 
of taxation have favored also the non-resident in- 
vestor rather than the resident farmer. The im- 
provements that the resident farmer makes add to 
the value of all real property in his neighborhood. 
His taxes are larger in proportion than those 
of the non-resident because improved land sells 
at a higher price than unimproved land. These 
conditions have enabled individuals to own large 
tracts of land which they do not live upon, and 
they have produced also the tenant farmer whose 
personal interests are not identified permanently 



200 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

with any particular community. He is naturally 
unwilling to pay large taxes upon his own limited 
resources, and, having the right as an elector to 
assist in deciding questions of taxation for schools, 
he prevents any increase of school expenditures. 
The non-resident landlord is in sympathy with 
this policy of the tenants, and as a consequence 
any actual improvement in schools is delayed. 
In some parts of the farming districts more than 
forty per cent of the resident electors are tenant 
farmers. The older the settlements and the more 
wealthy the land-owners, the larger does this per- 
centage become. Unless some governmental plan 
can be devised to improve the conditions of the 
actual farmers, enabling them to own the farms 
they conduct, speculation in real estate cannot 
be avoided, and little if any progress can be 
realized in country-school education. 

Progress Hindered. — It is evident that social 
and fiscal conditions are fundamental to any prog- 
ress in the education of the masses. It is posi- 
tive that no law could be passed that will force a 
community to provide educational facilities if the 
people do not appreciate or desire them. It is 
certain that success is not made by supervision 
or by inspection. The situation requires that all 
such undertakings be approached indirectly rather 
than directly. Social and educational surveys 



CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS 201 

have established the fact that such backward and 
unfavorable conditions are a menace to progres- 
sive civilization. The first institution to feel the 
depression that follows declining prosperity is the 
country school. After fifty years of such man- 
agement the school-houses are no better, the 
course of study is no richer, and the aims of 
education are no higher. Any form of progress 
requires people with resources, ambitions, hopes, 
and determination if hindrances are to be re- 
moved and obstacles overcome. 

Factors in Interest. — To be a proprietor and 
not a lessee is an important distinction in organ- 
ized society when matters of public welfare are 
to be decided. There is no better nor more ener- 
getic period of history than the period of the 
American pioneer. This is due to the fact that 
enterprise is at that stage at a high mark, pres- 
ent sacrifice is balanced by future promise, and 
every immigrant is given a hearty welcome and 
a prominent place. The pioneer is interested, 
he is enthusiastic, he is confident, and he is ener- 
getic. The children of the pioneers are noted for 
their success and for their enterprise in founding 
and strengthening institutions of culture and 
progress. When they give up farm life and seek 
occupations of a different scope they are suc- 
ceeded by a class of farm laborers rather than by 



202 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

a class of farm managers and owners. In many- 
communities the original inhabitants have been 
succeeded by immigrants from countries where 
their experience and training have not prepared 
them for the kind of school management adopted 
by the States. In addition to these social 
changes, the land has become too expensive for 
men of moderate means to purchase, and they 
have no option but to become renters of the 
farms of retired capitalists. By this reorganiza- 
tion of society interest is weakened, enterprise is 
reduced, and progress is hampered. The men and 
women who come from the farm under this 
management do not have the initiative, nor the 
opportunities, nor the possibilities that were the 
characteristics of the previous generation. 

The State. — In this uplift of country-school 
work there are many varying situations, and uni- 
form treatment and legislation are impossible. 
The whole problem needs to be worked out sym- 
pathetically and consistently, through wise and 
energetic administration. The State should adopt 
effective and notable standards and then offer 
pecuniary inducements to secure compliance. 
This can be best done by State grants of money 
to such districts as fully develop conditions im- 
posed by the standards. By this procedure the 
authority of the local management would be rec- 



CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS 203 

ognized and popular interest in the work would 
be permanently improved. Initiative must be 
satisfied with a gradual expansion of such a move- 
ment. It should not be extended so rapidly as 
to become universal in a decade because perma- 
nence of appreciation and of strength depends 
upon a cordial, complete acceptance of these bet- 
ter things. The State is the only political unit 
that has the resources to reach this necessary 
solution and that can maintain the expenditures 
and the policy for a long enough period to estab- 
lish success. In doing this, high standards should 
be the only acceptable ones, as any other policy 
would cause the movement to be first neglected 
and later repudiated. 

Remedies Proposed. — To meet these exigen- 
cies many plans have been proposed. The nation 
and the States are seeking ways to conserve the 
natural resources, in order to keep the people pros- 
perous; they are distributing gratuitous informa- 
tion regarding agriculture, horticulture, dairying, 
poultry farming, and plant and animal products. 
It is recognized by the government that the fut- 
ure is decided by the prudence exercised in the 
present. It is hoped to add to prosperity, to in- 
telligence, and to morality by securing a better 
understanding and a better status. The notion 
universally prevails that by proper scientific man- 



204 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

agement cheaper bread for the multitude can be 
produced, cheaper meat for the market can be 
obtained, and more of the resources of labor and 
thought can be granted for comfort and culture, 
for recreation and happiness. Education is im- 
possible unless there is enough income for family 
support without the assistance of child labor. 
There must be a relief from productive manual 
occupation in order to give the time to a child to 
go to school. Leisure, culture, and enlightenment 
are concomitants in civilization. Children can- 
not study if overtaxed by any kind of occupa- 
tion, and hence laws have been passed to prevent 
the years of childhood being taken for labor in- 
stead of education. The condition of the labor- 
ing classes must be improved and their individual- 
ities must be conserved if the education of their 
children is to be reached. The problem of the 
country school as a whole is, therefore, social 
rather than pedagogical. 

The Conclusion. — There are many difficult 
problems for modern civilization to solve. Im- 
portant considerations are related to the organ- 
ization and the management of the system of 
common schools. These problems are identified 
with complex conditions and their solutions are 
not readily secured. The teacher has a part, the 
school-board has a part, the patrons have a part, 



CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS 205 

the electors have a part, the officers chosen by the 
people have a part, and finally the general assem- 
bly has a part. The work that each of these can 
do depends upon the conditions that exist and 
the resources that are at command. Improving 
society is not a service that can be accomplished 
in a short time. It is an undertaking that will 
require years of labor, study, and legislation. 



XXIX 

FINAL WORDS 

Limitations. — In an attempt of this kind the 
treatment accorded is necessarily incomplete, be- 
cause the problems involved are too numerous and 
too complex to receive more than partial considera- 
tion. This undertaking cannot be more than a dis- 
cussion of the chief factors that must have a large 
part in the conduct of popular education, leaving 
to others additional investigations and conclusions 
that experience will indicate. All educational work 
is largely an approximation toward certain well- 
considered ideals. What may be the best for one 
generation should not suffice for succeeding gen- 
erations. What progress is most desirable at any 
one period depends upon the conditions that exist, 
the people's readiness for improvement, and the 
strength and quality of the leadership that can be 
provided. The preparation of leaders is the first 
step in the plan to be inaugurated, as without sen- 
sible, well-trained leadership any public enterprise 
will fail. 

Progress Required. — The country schools have 
been neglected by the last generation because of 

206 



FINAL WORDS 207 

the marvellous interest that has been felt in other 
kinds of activity. Business enterprise has so rap- 
idly expanded, prosperity has so largely increased, 
the values of everything produced upon the farms 
have so decidedly advanced, the investment in land 
for farming has so notably enlarged in such a few 
years, that personal and public interest have been 
almost entirely absorbed in the struggle to keep 
control and obtain a fair share of the wealth that 
was being developed and distributed. These things 
have had the effect of allowing education to become 
secondary to business and industry, and the boys 
and girls of the generation have not received their 
share of the world's opportunities in intellectual 
training and culture. 

Other Fields Cultivated. — While the country 
school has been permitted to become the one lag- 
gard in the educational procession, the universities 
and the colleges, the high schools and the city 
schools, have enjoyed extraordinary development. 
Fine buildings have been erected, the most exten- 
sive equipment has been procured, greatly in- 
creased salaries have been paid teachers, the best 
talent, training, scholarship, and experience have 
been sought for the work, and finally the main 
question has become, what remains yet to be done 
that will better educate and train the children for 
the opportunities afforded by the age ? Vocational 



208 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

education has been organized, professional educa- 
tion has been expanded, and requirements for 
entering these occupations have been much in- 
creased, while the spirit of better training and 
broader qualifications has been accepted and re- 
alized. So far is this true that the young peo- 
ple of the farms within reasonable reach of the 
cities and towns have abandoned the country 
schools and paid tuition to attend city schools, be- 
cause their own communities have not been alive 
to the situation. Those not so well situated and 
not possessing quite so much initiative have not 
had these special advantages and hence are not 
so well trained or so well prepared as the times 
and the demands require. 

What the People Need. — To remedy these con- 
ditions, the people and the teachers do not need 
formal instruction in educational principles and 
methods so much as they need vital instruction 
in the qualities and characteristics that are neces- 
sary to adapt a man to the present age. To this 
end community life needs to be enlarged, the com- 
munity spirit needs to be aroused, the commu- 
nity church, adapted to country conditions, needs 
to be organized, the community Sunday school 
needs to be maintained, and the community social 
and religious standards need to be readopted and 
revivified. It is admitted that this revival of the 



FINAL WORDS 209 

good things in civilization is no small task, as to 
accomplish such results must mean that the leader- 
ship must be sincere, must be qualified, and must 
be consecrated. Humanity is the only great thing 
after all, and the advancement, improvement, and 
betterment of men is the one notable task of civ- 
ilization. 

Statutes and Progress. — All of the difficulties 
here suggested are not to be charged to the account 
of the people of the community. Too long have 
the would-be leaders of society depended upon the 
making of law to produce intelligence and morality. 
Too long has the formal been given instead of the 
vital. The common remedy for all evils, short- 
comings, and failures is to propose more laws with 
more limitations of public spirit and self-reliance. 
A large part of the mistakes of the present age con- 
sists in this disposition to rely upon legal enact- 
ments of legislatures to save the people. The 
country school has been created, limited, restricted, 
and hindered by statutes that are supposed to 
be important for educational organization and 
management. These have originated from the en- 
deavor to substitute administration and supervi- 
sion and direction for the shortcomings, the weak- 
nesses, and the incompetence of the teacher. Fixed 
conditions have been imposed, minor and unsatis- 
factory standards have been adopted, and weak 



210 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

policies and insufficient results have been the con- 
sequence. Educational laws should be simple and 
general, so that the initiative and the discretion 
of school officers and teachers may have a chance 
to do the work necessary to be done. The present 
statutes are too specific, too directive, and too 
limiting to permit an effective school system, since 
personalities in action and in application make the 
school system and not the types of organization 
and management. The attempt to make the school 
system a perfected machine in its operations has 
violated the principle of freedom in school man- 
agement and the conceptions of rights taught by 
democracy. Discretion, freedom, initiative, and 
personal application must be restored in their ful- 
ness before the country school can be the institu- 
tion that the needs of education and training re- 
quire. Responsibility must be felt, recognition of 
success must be granted, and community ambition 
must be permitted. 

Progress in Education. — The adjustment of ed- 
ucational situations is one of spirit rather than 
one of fact. When the spirit of a community 
has been aroused, when the ambition has been 
touched, when the attitude toward the objects 
of life is free to act, then much that is valuable 
and permanent is sure to be done. There must 
be an encouraging note in the tone of society, there 



FINAL WORDS 211 

must be an eternal hope in the things that can be 
accomplished, there must be a firm belief in the 
possibility of saving humanity, there must be a 
consistent faith in the worth of living and doing, if 
the efforts are to be permanent and the confidence 
of success is sufficient. It is the right spirit in edu- 
cation that will improve and solidify a right public 
opinion, that will establish and maintain an active 
public interest, that will secure and emphasize a 
substantiality of public decision, and that will 
confirm and demand the fulfilment of expectations 
by immediate and effective public action. With 
these conditions realized, with these purposes en- 
throned, and with these ideals accepted, the coun- 
try school can become a notable, an efficient, and 
a model institution for the maintenance of culture, 
conscience, and character in human society. 



INDEX 



Ability, 23. 
Academy, 152, 153. 
Adaptation in teaching, 12, 13, 

50, 51. 
Agriculture, 16, 34, 37, 1 16, 117, 

183, 197. 

As a study, 184, 185, 186, 187. 

Instruction in, 41, 138, 164. 
Algebra, 50. 
Altruism, 69. 
Animal life, 186, 187. 
Animals, study of, 186, 187. 
Application, 83. 
Apprehension, 83. 
Approximation, 206. 
Arithmetic, 29, 30, 49, 50, 54, 

163, 168, 169, 170, 171. 
Asceticism, 124, 125. 
Assignment of lessons, 86, 87, 88, 

92. 
Attitude, of community, 143. 

Of pupils, 66. 
Authority factor, 67, 68. 

Capability, 23, 32, 38, 46, 51. 

Of country boys and girls, 144. 

Of teacher, 130, 131, 155. 
Capitalists, 197. 
Carpentry, 37. 
Centre of interest, 60. 
Character, 22, 32, 64, 195, 196. 
City, the, attractions of, 108. 

Homes, 142. 

Improvements, 142. 

Lawns and parks, 142. 

People of, 140. 

Schools, 142. 



Civilization, 7, 25, 3 8, 1 3 2, 204, 209. 
Class leaders, 93, 94. 
Classification, 29, 30. 
Closing school, 72. 
Clubs, 112. 

Literary, 40. 

Science, 41. 

Singing, 42. 

Women's, 42. 
College entrance, 153. 
Common sense, 62, 72, ill. 
Commoner, 10 1. 

Community, local, 131, 134, 137, 
142, 188, 209. 

Attitude of, 143. 

Co-operation in, 9. 

Country, 3, 5, 9, 33, 37, 39, 43, 
198. 

Life, 208. 

Meetings, 40, 41, 42, 43. 

Organization of, 39. 

Spirit, 208. 

Unit, 149, 150. 
Companionship, 66. 
Comparison, 192. 
Competition, 44. 
Composition, English, 167. 
Conduct, 57, 63, 64. 
Conservation, 203. 
Contract, 102. 
Cooking, 37, 164. 
Co-operation, 9, II, 18, 39, 43, 
103, 104, 105, 113, 139, 141, 
142, 144, 145, 194. 
Co-ordination, 1 1. 
Country boys and girls, energy 
of, 144. 



213 



214 



INDEX 



Country life, 16, 19, 108, 140, 
141, 175,176, 188, 197,208. 

Dissatisfaction with, 19. 
Country pupils, 15. 
Country school, 10, 45, 161, 162, 
163, 164, 165, 200, 202, 208, 
209. 

Business side of, 127, 142, 173, 
174. _ 

Inspection of, 129, 130. 

Isolation of, 143. 

Place in community, 11. 

Progress of, 134, 206, 207. 

State subsidy for, 129. 

Supervision of, 129. 
Country teacher, 131, 136, 148, 
154, 155,164, 174, 175, 176. 
County superintendent, 114. 
County unit, 149. 
Course of study, 28, 37, 138, 159. 
Crops, 197, 198. 
Culture, 5, 35, 132, 158, 199, 204. 

Intellectual, 13, 14, 32. 
Culture studies, 14. 
Customs, 66, 93. 

Demonstration schools, 137, 

179. 
Demonstration work, 33, 34, 37, 

184. 
Discipline, 64, 75, 104. 

Methods for securing, 76. 
Dissipation, 109. 
District fair, 187. 
Drawing, 164. 
Drills, 79. 

Economy, 134, 146, 156, 175. 

Practical, 17. 
Education, 33, 102, 157, 158. 

Aims of, 201. 

American, 161. 

Chinese, 159. 



Egyptian, 160. 

Expenditures for, 174. 

Fundamentals of, 159. 

Greek, 160. 

Hebraic, 159. 

Hindoo, 159. 

Meaning of, 21, 22, 25. 

Province of, 125. 
Educators, 158. 
Efficiency, 132, 158. 
Electors, 5, 6, 7, 147, 200. 
English, 80, 165, 167, 171. 

Composition, 79, 163, 167, 168. 

Grammar, 79, 163, 166, 168. 

Language, 82, 163, 165, 168. 

Literature, 79, 163. 

Oral, 167. 

Pronunciation of, 165, 166. 

Rhetoric, 168. 

Spelling, 79, 163, 165. 
Entertainment, 19, 43, 44, 108, 

109. 
Environment, 17, 25, 44, 143. 

Influence of, 141. 
Equality, doctrine of, 190, 192. 
Esteem, 66. 
Examinations, 131, 175. 

Aim of, 81. 

Difficulties of, 84, 85. 

Frequency of, 82, 83. 

Nature of, 80, 81. 

Place of, 78. 

Province of, 79. 

Purpose of, 83, 84. 
Exercise, American idea of, 123. 
Experience, 143, 177. 

Value of, 17, 178. 
Expert, the, demand for, 119, 180. 

Factor, authority, 6j. 
Force, 68. 
Intellectual, 67. 
Moral, 66. 



INDEX 



215 



Failure, 24, 64. 

In conduct, 63. 
Fairs, 187. 
Family life, 18. 
Farm employees, 198. 
Farmer, the, education of, 191. 

Independence of, 139. 

Isolation of, 139. 

Land-owning, 197. 

Mistakes of, 140, 141. 

Tenant, 198. 
Fatigue, 49. 
Floor plan, yy. 
Force factor, 68. 
Freedom, 96. 

Geography, 82, 88, 163, 171. 

Grades, 50, 153. 

Grading, 30. 

Grammar, English, 163, 166, 168. 

Habits, 14, 17, 22, 23, 32, 56, 

196. 
Habits of industry, importance 

of, 14. 
Happiness, 5, 12, 13, 19, 37, 41, 

66, 188, 189, 193. 
"Hard times," 198. 
Health, 22, 36, 41, 51. 
Helpfulness, moral, 18. 

Of money, 132. 
High school, 153, 176. 
History, 79, 82, 163, 171. 
Home, the, 18, 142, 175, 187, 

189. 
Home economics, 34, 138, 164. 
Home training, II, 
Hygiene, 163, 189. 

Imagination, 46, 48. 
Immigrant, the, 201, 202. 
Improvements, 142. 
Incapability, 69. 



Incompetency, 69. 
Independence, 134, 135, 139. 

Lack of, 142. 
Individual characteristics, 65. 
Industry, habits of, 14, 17, 23. 
Inexperience, 76. 
Inferiority, 68. 
Information, 87. 
Ingenuity, 75, 76. 
Inspection, 129, 130, 143, 148. 
Instruction, method of, 93. 
Intellectual factor, 67. 
Interest, centre of, 60. 
Isolation, 125. 

Of country school, 143. 

Results of, 140. 

Weakness of, 139. 

Jesuits, methods of instruction 

of, 93- 
Judgment, 46, 48, 50, 72. 
Justice, 63. 

Knowledge, 12, 156. 
Of the right, 63. 

Labor, 124, 133, 204. 
Land, price of, 197. 

Speculation in, 199. 
Laymen, 140. 
Leaders, 105, 206. 
Leadership, no, 206. 
Lectures, 35, 43. 
Legislation, 143, 209. 
Leisure, 109, 204. 
Lessons, assignment of, 86, 92. 

Open-book, 89. 
Library, the, 112. 
Licenses, 137. 
Limitations, 206. 
Literary clubs, 40. 
Living, high price of, 198. 
Love, 66. 
Lyceums, 35, 79. 



216 



INDEX 



Machinery, 199. 
Manual training, 164. 

Object of, 183. 
Masses, the, 133, 137, 158, 163. 
Mathematics, 80, 168. 
Memory, 46, 48. 
Men teachers, 116. 
Methods, 91. 
Military precision, 73. 
Mind, development of, 46, 48, 49, 

50. 
Moral factor, 66. 
Moral life, 32. 
Morality, 5, 196. 
Motives, 64. 
Music, 42. 

Vocal, 163. 

Nature study, 164. 
Novelty, 75, 76, 96. 

Obedience, 56, 63. 
Occupation, 15, 17, 35, 36, 38, 
no, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 
181, 183, 191. 
Opportunities 191. 
Organization, in, 119. 
Educational, 118. 
In school, 27. 

Of country community, 39. 
Of supervision, 1 15. 
Organizations, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 

112. 
Over-discipline, 73, 74. 

Parents, 154. 
Patience, 84, 85. 
Patrician class, 144. 
Patrons, 7. 
Peasant class, 144. 
People, the, 100, 101, 103, 104, 
106, 118, 119, 120, 208, 209. 
Perception, 46, 47, 48. 



Perseverance, 85. 

Personality, dealing with, 65. 

Physical training, 164. 

Physiology, 163, 168, 171. 

Physique, 144. 

Pioneer, the, 134, 201. 

Plant life, 185. 

Plants, study of, 185, 186. 

Play, 121. 

Playground, the, 73, no, 121, 

122. 
Political influence, 100, IOI. 
Popularity, 25, 66. 
Practical, the, importance of, 85, 

158. 
Province of, II, 12. 
Practical callings, 37. 
Programme, the, 45, 46, 52, 53, 

54, 92- 
Progress, of country school, 134, 
206, 207. 

Educational, 143, 200, 209. 
Promotion, 84, 154, 155. 
Pronunciation, 165, 166. 
Prospects, 197. 
Prosperity, 5, 9, 13, 25, 37. 
Provincialism, 144. 
Public sentiment, 118. 
Punishment, 69. 

Pupils, the, 7, 8, 9, n, 14, 15, 32, 
62, 63, 64. 

Knowing names of, 77. 

Seating, 30, 31. 

Reading, 29, 163. 

Recess, 51, 69. 

Recitation, the, 45, 92, 93, 97. 

Form of, 95. 

Periods of, 92. 

Plan of, 98. 

Programme of, 53. 

Value of, 93. 
Records, 27. 



INDEX 



217 



Recreation, 19, 110, III, 112, 

121, 122, I23. 124, 

Reproof, 69. 
Respect, 66. 
Revenue, 136. 
Reviewing, 28, 81, 83, 84. 
Rhetoric, 168. 
Roman education, 160. 
Rules, 62. 

Salary, 18, 100, 102, 142, 173, 

207. 
Sanitation, 36, 41. 
Scholar, the, 119. 
Scholarship, 67, 130, 174, 195. 
School, the, 101, 125, 126, 128. 

Function of, 102. 

Opening of, 72. 

Order in, 74, 75. 

Organization of, 27. 
School board, the, 5, 6, 8, 27, 40, 

102, 151. 
School day, length of, 51, 52. 
School directors, 5. 
School districts, 103. 

OfBcers of, 146, 147. 
School government, 62. 

Factors in, 66. 
School-grounds, 33. 
School-house, the, 33, 34, 35, 36. 
School management, aims of, 55. 

Characteristics of, 58, 59. 
School-room, 74. 

Floor plan of, 77. 
School work, value of, 158. 
Schools, demonstration, 133, 137, 

179, 184. 
Science, 36. 
Science club, 41. 
Self-control, 66, 74. 
Self-reliance, 21. 
Sewing, 37, 164. 
Shop, the, 36. 



Signals, 72. 

Singing clubs, the, 42. 

Skill, 59, 182, 183, 191, 192. 

Social centre, the, 121. 

Social life, 4, 35, 101, 105, 122. 

Social side, the, 24. 

Social uplift, 103. 

Spelling, 79, 80, 163. 

Spontaneity, 96. 

Standardization, 136, 152, 153, 

154, 156, 157, 199. 
State, the, province of in educa- 
tion, 135, 136, 202, 203. 
State aid, 127, 128, 129, 130, 202, 

203. 
State institute, 130. 
Stimulation, 32. 
Studies, 21, 79, 80, 82. 

Programme of, 162. 
Study, 51, 81, 86, 89. 

Course of, 12, 28, 37, 138, 159. 

Programme of, 54. 

Values of, 91. 
Subsidy, State, 128, 129, 137, 180, 

202. 
Success, 23, 24, 63, 64, 81, 137, 

143, 188, 193, 194, 195. 
Supervision, 73, 114, 134, 137, 
143, 180, 200, 209. 

Ends of, 117, 118. 

Organization of, 115. 

Unit of, 115, 148. 
Suspension, 69. 
Sympathy, 85, 86. 
System, 73, 78, 79. 

Tactics, 55, 71, 72, 74, 75. 

Talent, variability of, 190. 

Taxation, 128. 

Taxing unit, the, 147, 148. 

Teacher, the, 8, 9, 23, 24, 25, 27, 
28,29,31, 32, 36,55,56,57, 
58,59,61,62,63,64,65,66, 



218 



INDEX 



67, 68, 71, 72, 74, 75, 76, 77, 
78, 79, 81, 84, 86, 87, 88, 90, 
94, 95, 96, 97, 100, 101, 102, 
107, 116, 117, 124, 125, 130. 
Incompetency of, 69. 
Inefficiency of, 68. 
Influence of, 104, 105, 106. 
Licensing of, 131. 
Manner of, 57. 
Training of, 131, 175, 176, 177, 

178, 179, 180. 
Special, 131, 185. 
Spirit of, 57, 66. 
Teacher supply, 173. 
Teachers' institute, 180. 
Teachers' reading circle, 180. 
Teaching, economy in, 94, 95. 
Text-books, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 157. 
Town, life in, 141, 142. 
Township unit, 149. 
Traditions, 96, 156. 
Training, of teacher, 131, 175, 
176, 177, 178, 179, 180. 
Social, 19. 
Vocational, 16. 



Transportation, progress in, 134, 

150. 
Tutoring, 93. 



Useful, the, 85. 



Vigilance, necessity for, 64. 
Vocational notions, 182, 183, 
184. 



Weeds, study of, 186. 
Women teachers, 116, 117. 
Women's club, 42. 
Work, 11, 121, 188. 

Oral, 80, 82, 98. 

Quality of, 173. 

Written, 98. 

Young people, 108, 109, no. 
in, 112, 208. 
Rights of, 20, 31, 63, 69. 



Ian 27 1913 











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